a few months ago, at the end of the summer holidays, three famous economists had launched each of their side in the same SOS to Emmanuel Macron, the conjurant to proceed urgently to the mother of all reforms : the reduction of public expenditure, before opening the records of the unemployment insurance and pensions. Philippe Dessertine he was accused of “procrastinating” and ” retreat before the obstacle.” Jean-Marc Daniel had written : “The budget 2019 will be the moment of truth. After that, it will be too late. “And Jean Peyrelevade, very pessimistic, had pressed the nail :” Having now consumed, and often misuse, the margins of maneuver available to it, it is condemned to immobility. […] The five-year programme is unfortunately closed : the French economy will continue for four years to struggle hard to try to get out of the Sargasso sea, where she rowed for decades. “
You know the rest. In the budget of 2019, we couldn’t help but notice a new and severe increase in public spending, with its procession in the usual taxes and income taxes, new or increased, the onslaught of tax continuing his work of demolition of the middle class, lack of motivation of entrepreneurs and disintegration of the social fabric national.
Read also on public Spending, a “money crazy” !
and Then a tsunami of yellow Vests is shot down over france, contributing to a worsening of the very bad figures of what can only be called a disaster for the French, as a result of nearly forty years of waste, gabegies and errors. Failure monumental of a political class, left and right confused, statist, incompetent, irresponsible and demagogic, who has managed to ruin one of the richest countries and the most talented of the civilized world.
Cavalry
The result, here are a few figures : waltz mad billion dollars spent in pure loss, and still on the rise. The public debt will pass in the beginning of the year 100% of GDP, reaching 2 300 billion euros. Public spending will rise to a peak of 1 300 billion by 2019, and the deficit direct from the State will be 100 billion euros – a new record – on its budget of almost 400 billion. Immediate results : France will have to borrow 200 billion euros during the year, half to fill the budget deficit, and the other half, as every year, to pay interest on the debt in general, certain loans of the past are maturing and have to be replaced by new loans.
In the private sector, this is called the cavalry. In our governments, we only speak of “adaptive management,” … Still glad that the interest rates are at the lowest, if not the fire department of the IMF and the european troika would be already installed at Matignon and Bercy to go to the emery the expenditure of the country, as they have recently done with Greece.
For the rest, we are still the world champions of mandatory levies, that is to say, the tax bites (taxes) and social security (contributions and benefits), which will total, according to Eurostat, 48 % of our GDP, or 8% more than the european average. However, these 8 % represent an amount unheard-of 180 billion euros per year, or 900 billion over a five year period ! Enough dreaming of a better world, provided, of course, to be able to return to the european average !
The French more equal, but poorer
still let us Add that a large majority of French (57 %) do not pay income tax and that this is pure demagogy politician. How many of our fellow citizens take advantage of tax loopholes, and why ? or social benefits, and which ones ? These are probably the same people who demand ever more social ! Impossible to know the truth. Households that earn more than 2 750 euros per month, who pay taxes on the income, who are the owners of a house heated with fuel oil and which run on diesel to go to work need to ask themselves what world they came and how they are going to be able to raise properly their children.
In a country of History and pride, such as France, the race to the bottom is the worst solution. It is, however, one of our senior public servants, we apply it shamelessly and for a very long time. The French may be more equal today, but they are also the poorest : the last, the median income is known, that of 2015 (20 300 euro), is lower than in 2008 (20 400). The reality is probably worse, because there is a lack of statistics on the available income calculated on the net tax, that is to say, after the passages of the mower of the State. But it is apparently a secret !
to Reduce the public service
To give air and room for manoeuvre in our economy, and to decrease those pesky compulsory levies, we must at all costs to lower our structural expenditure. The priority therefore is to reform the status and to reduce the number of public servants : they were 5.5 million at December 31, 2017, after having increased by 45 000 units during the same year, 2017. A pure madness ! Our public officials have the double defect of being at once the most expensive in Europe (12.7% of GDP in France, compared to 9% in the Uk and 7.6 % in Germany) and the more mummified, with their unique status in the world. As written by the magazine Capital in its last issue : “Cramped up to the caricature in her “executive job”, his grades, his body, and its levels picrocholins, starched by a system of automatic increase in seniority who is forbidden to recognize and reward the initiative, averse to any form of mobility, softened by the employment of life, weakened by a pension system out of the price, locked by a union power omnipresent, blocked by pay scales inadequate and, moreover, unable to divest itself of its culture of expense […], the public service made in France displays of the performance to bring a smile to even a keeper of the museum of the former soviet Union. “
the Face of a system also sclerosing, it is absolutely necessary to reserve that status to life to the only battalions that are dedicated to the problems of peerage, and above all start carving emergency in the fat to reduce the workforce. As Emmanuel Macron, it seems, a regular review of Nicolas Sarkozy, why not ask him how it was done, well or ill, to reduce massively – 150 000 full – time equivalents- the number of State officials during his five-year term ? By not replacing an officer on two retiring, he had chosen an easy method but brutal and had not been able to avoid the blows of the plane of the undifferentiated deleting posts of police officers and nurses.
anyway, this way of operating, provided you put a bit of intelligence and a binder, has many advantages, starting with a powerful symbolic : it shows clearly the will irrevocable of the State of reform in depth. It is simple to implement, if we don’t use them to create new gas plants. It does not interfere person, and does not cause any of the benefits distributed to the French. And, more importantly, it can pay big dividends. With 193 billion euros in 2017, the payroll of the public service is a main potential source of savings. 150 000 public servants pay less among those who retire, this may represent at least a saving of 6 to 7 billion euros per year. Would remain so to address the considerable weight of the territorial agents (1.9 million), an army busty occupying every nook and cranny of a yarrow deprecated and old, but that’s another story…
On the same subject Nouailhac – Based public and private sector : inconvenient truths