Counting the Days Until 2007

Man, that Jock Shirack is just full of great ideas. Here's his latest:

DAVOS, Switzerland -- French President Jacques Chirac called for a tax to fund the global fight against AIDS on Wednesday, as new figures showed a modest rise in the number of patients receiving life-saving drugs in poor nations.

The experimental levy, which could be raised on international financial transactions, could generate $10 billion a year, Chirac told the World Economic Forum.

Comments

[Ken Shultz]

Wow--that's a lot of money! ...and it comes from "international financial transactions"--I don't know what those are, but I think that means that we don't have to pay for it.

We could also put an international tax on condom sales, but if we do that, we'll have to find a way to provide the poor with subsidized condoms.

[Stevo Darkly]

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop bashing France.

[Gary Gunnels]

Stevo Darkly,

Chirac isn't France. Bush isn't the U.S.

Matt Welch,

Don't be so sure Chirac won't run in 2007. He might want to hang on longer than Mitterand did. 🙁

[Matt Welch]

GG -- Please, Dieu, NON!

[zeroentitlement]

Jacque, Jacque, Jacque...haven't you ever heard the expression, "no good deed goes unpunished?" So if one of your successors repeals the tax, and the treatment trough dries up, guess who the Africans blame for killing them with AIDS? That's right...France!

[Gary Gunnels]

Matt Welch,

I've read in Le Figaro (and a couple of other places) that Chirac has been making noises about running again. A head to head between him and Sarkozy over who will run under the UMP banner will be interesting. 🙂

[Matt Welch]

GG -- Don't you think Sarkozy would beat Chirac like a gong?

[B.P.]

Apropos the earlier thread, how about a user fee?

[Swamp Justice]

This is just an underhanded way to introduce the Tobin Tax.

To the detractors: why do you hate those poor AIDS victims? How can you be against helping sick people, no matter the cost (or effectiveness)?

[Ted B.]

I wonder what percentage of this "tax" that Chirac and his friends will skim-off for "administrative costs"? Or less politely-put...steal for themselves.

A number of prominent UN"-sponsored charities skim-off 30-45% routinely.

[Thomas Paine's Goiter]

Apropos the earlier thread, how about a user fee?

Sooooooo anyone who uses the French has to pay?

Hm. So we're talking Iraq, Russia, China, Iran, British Johns....I can't think of anyone else that uses France offhand.

[Gary Gunnels]

Matt Welch,

I keep wondering how much of the glow will be knocked off Sarkozy by the time 2007 rolls around - the fact that he's no longer in government might hurt him for example. Plus, Chirac really, really wants to avoid being indicted for his "excesses" as Mayor of Paris, etc.

[Gary Gunnels]

The best thing Chirac could do is to serve out his term, shut up, and die of heat stroke during the summer of 2007.

[Matt Welch]

Can't Chirac maintain immunity through some other fashion? (And then, hopefully, have Sarkozy or whoever strip it away dramatically....)

[Gary Gunnels]

Matt Welch,

From what I have read the only thing protecting Chirac's hide at this moment is his position as President. I know that under Article 17 of the French Constitution the President has the right to pardon, but whether he can pardon himself I can't say. The Article simply grants him the power to pardon; it doesn't on its face put any limits on that power. I guess he could write out the pardon, sign it, etc., then reveal it his last day in office. The Parliament itself can grant him amnesty I think (like it did with Mitterand and his corrupt cronies in the later 1980s).

[Gary Gunnels]

And I'm serious about that heatstroke thing. 🙂

[R C Dean]

France can tax all the international transactons originating in France that it wants.

Anything that reduces their international competitiveness, hastens their decline, and speeds up their descent into irrelevancy, is a silver lining in my book.

Now, if Jock wants to create some international agency to tax everyone's international transactions, well, that's a little different.

[Gary Gunnels]

Regarding heads of state, why is Bush skipping the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz?

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean,

Let your true bigotry shine through. 🙂

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean,

I am curious. Why would want France to be irrelevant? Why would you want France to have no relevancy to the world at all? What explains this desire for cultural, economic, etc. genocide?

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean,

You probably can't explain your irrational hatred, so its likely true that an intelligent or otherwise useful answer will not be forthcoming.

[zeroentitlement]

"...why do you hate those poor AIDS victims? How can you be against helping sick people, no matter the cost (or effectiveness)?"

Au contraire, Swampy! I don't hate AIDS victims. I'm just very good at observing patterns.

Two years ago, I donated my old computer to a single mom I worked with. "Ohhh, I'm a poooor single moooother, I can't afford a computer for my keeeyids" sort of thing, despite her lovely set of salon-airbrushed nails and immaculate new car. What the heck, I wasn't using the machine, let her family use it, I figured. Well, I could swear I didn't include any kind of Tech Support Agreement with that damned machine, but sure enough, every time the computer's not doing what she wants or is making some funny noise, she calls me for tech support. And the first two times, I fixed it for her. It got viruses from her kids being on KaZaa all night without any security software. Third time she calls, I finally tell her, "you know, your kids are almost grown. If they can figure out how to use that computer, it's about time they figured out how to fix it. It's behaving like that because it's picked up a virus. Like I've told you before, you need to get anti-virus software and a firewall on that beastie." Oh, noooo, but that's too expensive! So she gets pissed at me, stops speaking to me for a while, and tells all our co-workers that I gave her a "broken computer." Yeah, I'm such a bitch that way.

It's world relief efforts in a tiny, tiny nutshell. The greedy Imperialists of the West are blamed for every self-imposed death sentence in the Third World. Africa is unfathomably rich in natural resources, and has scarcely explored other revenues such as tourism, sports franchises, and (like India's done successfully) outsourcing. Sadly, enough Africans would rather kill each other, through one means or another, for one stupid reason or another ("Allahu Akbar and eat lead, infidel!"), than emerge from barbarism. Extinction happens, what can I say?

Oh, sorry to seem callous and unsentimental. Almost.

[Stevo Darkly]

Chirac isn't France.

Yes -- just as a single needle is not a cactus.

Not to condemn entirely. Cacti, for example, have their good points (NPI). They can be decorative, and I like the edible kind, called nogales or something like that. But the removal of one needle would not render them significantly less prickly. France is a sometimes-beautiful-and-yummy but prickly nation.

Also, I was kind of kidding.

[zeroentitlement]

Gary, France doesn't need R.C.'s "hatred," as you call it, to bring it down. France is doing a marvelous job, all by itself. Are their unemployment figures not in the double digits? Are they not already crippled by corrupt unions, worthless masses of jobless immigrants with monstrous senses of entitlement, and absurd, half-assed government forays into political correctness?

[Brett]

Also, I was kind of kidding.

Stevo, I for one got the Airplane reference and chuckled.

[Jeff]

Besides the silliness of Chirac's proposition, the first sentence/paragraph in that quote is more than a bit ponderous. Geez the whole article consists of sentence/paragraph monsters! Are all Reuters articles this bad? Checking... yes it appears that the Reuters editors have done away with the concept of a paragraph. Why have I only just now noticed this? Maybe we should create a paragraph tax.

[Stevo Darkly]

Brett: It looks like I picked the wrong week to stop making Airplane references, surely.

[Brett]

Ok, here goes...

Don't call me Shirley.

[Stevo Darkly, over...]

You know, in fairness, maybe France produced a tremendous body of creative artwork in the past. But that's all oeuvre.

[Gary Gunnels]

zero,

Are their unemployment figures not in the double digits?

No. Its been in the 9.1%-9.8% range for a number of years now. Now, in the early eighties it was 18%-20%, but since then it has steadily crept downward.

French unions are no more corrupt than unions in the U.S.; and per capita there are less days lost to striking in France than the U.S. (according to the OECD).

As to the "worthless masses of jobless immigrants," that is quite hyperbolic. Go to Marseille sometime - you'll find a highly industrious crowd of immigrants there.

Stevo,

French art, architecture, etc. remain robust till this day.

[Josh]

Gary, do the OECD's numbers on days lost to striking include days lost by non-striking workers blocked from getting to and from work?

[Gary Gunnels]

Josh,

I can't say. I'd have to research that.

Anyway, to be frank, if there is a nation in "crisis" in Western Europe it ain't France. Its Germany.

[Stevo Darkly]

Gary: I think your enormous brain is exerting excess pressure on your optic nerves, rendering you utterly blind to my dopey humor.

Reread my last comment, ponder the meaning of "oeuvre," and watch Airplane until you feel lightheaded. If that doesn't work, we may have to try more aggressive therapy -- perhaps a Three Stooges marathon. After that, I'll come off as fucking Voltaire.

[Gary Gunnels]

Apparently Chirac's remarks were made in response to Gordon Brown's proposal of a "Marshall Plan for Africa." Chirac is engaged in some empty proposals it appears.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Why does this sound like a rubbery version of "Oil for Food" to me?

[R C Dean]

I am happy to see France's influence in the world decline because I am hard pressed to come up with examples of that influence that are not, on the whole, pretty inimical.

When French foreign policy becomes anything more than a vehicle for the aggrandizement of France at the expense of others, we can talk. Until then, their descent into post-relevancy is a good thing in my book.

[drf]

When French foreign policy becomes anything more than a vehicle for the aggrandizement of France at the expense of others, we can talk"

more brilliant neocon commentary.

this differs from the militarism by the current us administration and many here who can't wait to "do" iran, too? hell, look at the rise of american nationalism in the run up to the war. and for how badly run it was, how unnecessary it was, how the neocons justified it with moving targets and can't admit they're wrong and a bunch of assholes... aw hell.

visit france. learn another language well enough so people can't tell you're american. take your head out of your ass, and stop cheering for the packers.

puke.

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean,

You are likely hard-pressed out of absolute ignorance. Accordingly your commentary should be treated with the grain of salt that it deserves.

One has to ask: do you like to plant flower gardens? If so, then do you find France's dominating influence in that area of culture, etc., "inimical?"

[Chrysostomos]

I have been watching some of the webcasts of the World Economic Forum and they have been very informative. I personally liked the brief webcast on "Does Business Have a Noble Value?". I like the opening comments by Stephen Roach of Morgan Stanley. I didn't really like what he had to say, as I agreed with his analysis of the United States, but that is reality - sometimes the truth hurts. Interesting also was the survey as to would today's world leaders take responsibility for making tough choices on these issues. 43% said low confidence, 18% said very low confidence. 34% moderate confidence. 4% high confidence. 1% very confident.

Anyway, I encourage you guys to view the webcasts if you get a chance.

[haha]

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