He seems to have blindside both left and right, and the right is mighty pissed off.
(Note: the RSA is pushed by one of Sarkozy's "lefty ministers", the guy who was the former head of Emmaus, an organisation that helps the homeless. He's been quite persistent in making this a meaningful reform rather than a unfunded gimmick. If that does happen it would actually be good news, unless I've missed a catch) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Le RSA est une grossière erreur de diagnostic - Actu > Chomage : Le premier portail d'information et d'échange sur le chômage et l'emploi
Cette proportion de travailleurs qui n'ont pas intérêt financièrement à travailler est surestimée. On a demandé aux bénéficiaires du RMI ne recherchant pas d'emploi la raison de leur non-recherche. Seulement 3% d'entre eux invoquent des raisons financières : les gains obtenus en travaillant seraient trop faibles. Mais 44% évoquent des raisons de santé. Les problèmes de transport, de formation ou de garde d'enfants sont également beaucoup cités.
Most people on the RMI can't work for health reasons...
Another strange consequence of the RSA is that people on the RSA will only see about 60 % of the marginal euro they'll earn ; in effect, the same rate as the marginal euro for top earners... Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères
In Denmark, it would definitely be a problem for both practical, cultural and political reasons.
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
I certainly like the taxing mechanism, a small step in the right direction towards reestablishing a fiscal balance vis a vis taxation of rents versus taxation of labor, a very small step.
But, insofar as it supplants the RMI, what we are now doing is transforming the poor and excluded into toiling poor and excluded, which does nothing for their station, still less for the station of their children (should they have any, given rents in parts of france it's getting harder and harder to afford to start a family) and in fact will, as linca points out, put pressure at the bottom end of the wage escale. In principle, I wouldn't be against such a scheme, if at the same time we were also in a full employment regime, there was adequate public housing for all, and other reasons for desperation at one's station at the lower deciles of the income strata were removed.
But, in terms of the tide of neo-liberal reforms, this certainly isn't the worst we could have expected. And, at end of day, it sort of is a repudiation, in fine, of the paquet fiscale which otherwise was hamstringing room for manoeuvre in advance of what may be a bit of a slowdown over the next 12-18 months. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
