French embrace higher taxes on the wealthy (or maybe not)

Freer — and Less Free

By ROGER COHEN, NYT

PARIS — On freedom and equality, two of three rallying cries of the revolution of 1789, the French and Anglo-Saxon worlds have differed. Each finds both important, at least if equality is defined as equality of opportunity, but disagrees on how they should be balanced.

Liberty unchecked by solidarity does not make a French heart beat faster the way freedom untrammeled lifts the American spirit. Here the state is cherished as protector rather than reviled as predator. It is seen as the balancer of economic opportunity, not the brake on it.

History and geography explain these differences: French borders have not changed much for centuries while an American’s imagination always stands at some new frontier. The Gallic cake, of static size, needs fraternal division while the U.S. cake demands eternal expansion.

So President François Hollande’s proposal for a 75 percent marginal tax rate on annual incomes over €1 million ($1.2 million) is really no surprise. It is just the latest example of the recurrent Gallic itch to deliver equality by decree and somehow divide the cake in a way that makes the world more just.

(More here.)