France is the world champion of public spending. With 57.2% of GDP allocated to state spending -almost an absolute record in the OECD, only surpassed by Finland this year, at 57.5-, it has built the most ambitious redistribution model ever attempted in a developed democracy.
But its hospitals are in crisis. Its schools are falling behind in all international rankings. Its infrastructure is aging. Its debt exceeds 110% of GDP. And its entrepreneurs or those who actually pay taxes are leaving the country due to excessively high taxation. France remains one of the countries in the world with the highest tax pressure, with 45.3% of GDP allocated to taxes and social contributions in 2024.
For an ordinary person, it is a total failure, but for the French left, we need more state and more taxes to solve this...
The French example is intellectually fascinating because it perfectly destroys the progressive argument. It is not a poor country that would not have the means to sustain a strong state. It is one of the six largest economies in the world, with one of the most well-funded administrations on the planet, that decided fifty years ago that taxing more would solve its social problems. But it doesn’t work...
The most clinical example remains the 75% tax on high incomes, established by President François Hollande in 2013. An emblematic campaign promise of the socialist candidate, a symbol of fiscal justice for millions of voters. But in two years of implementation, 260 million euros were collected (less than the administrative cost of the measure itself) and the policy caused an accelerated exodus of top executives, elite athletes, and entrepreneurs to Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland. The measure was discreetly abandoned in 2014, but it remains a totem of the left, and “economists” like Thomas Piketty want higher taxation in the future.
