on strike...


moralist

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Just like Ayn Rand predicted...

FRENCH SAY AU REVOIR TO FRANCE:

OVER 2,000,000 FRENCH PEOPLE NOW LIVE ABROAD,

AND MOST ARE CROSSING THE CHANNEL AND HEADING FOR LONDON

The land of 400 cheeses, the birthplace of Molière and Coco Chanel, is facing an unprecedented exodus. Up to 2.5 million French people now live abroad, and more are bidding “au revoir” each year.

A French parliamentary commission of inquiry is due to publish its report on emigration on Tuesday, but Le Figaro reported yesterday that because of a political dispute among its members over the reasons for the exodus, a “counter-report” by the opposition right-wing is to be released as an annex.

Centre-right deputies are convinced that the people who are the “lifeblood” of France are leaving because of “the impression that it’s impossible to succeed”, said Luc Chatel, secretary general of the UMP, who chaired the commission.

There is “an anti-work mentality, absurd fiscal pressure, a lack of promotion prospects, and the burden of debt hanging over future generations,” he told Le Figaro. However, the report’s author Yann Galut, a Socialist deputy, said the UMP was unhappy because it had been unable to prove that a “massive exile” had taken place since the election of President François Hollande in 2012.

What is certain is the steady rise in the number of emigrants across all sections of society, from young people looking for jobs to entrepreneurs to pensioners.

According to a French Foreign Ministry report published at the end of last month, the top five destinations are the UK, Switzerland, the US, Belgium and Germany. The French consulate in London has estimated that up to 400,000 French nationals live in the capital, a number equal to the population of France’s sixth largest city.

The Foreign Ministry recorded 1.6 million expats at the end of last year. But that figure only includes people who had registered at French consulates abroad. “So the real figure is twice as high,” says Hélène Charveriat, the delegate-general of the Union of French Citizens Abroad.

She told The Independent that while the figure of 2.5 million expatriates is “not enormous”, what is more troubling is the increase of about 2 per cent each year.

“Young people feel stuck, and they want interesting jobs. Businessmen say the labour code is complex and they’re taxed even before they start working. Pensioners can also pay less tax abroad,” she says.

France’s unemployment rate is hovering around 10 per cent. As for high-earners, almost 600 people subject to a wealth tax on assets of more than €800,000 (£630,000) left France in 2012, 20 per cent more than the previous year. Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister, announced in London this week that the top income tax rate of 75 per cent would be abolished next January after a number of business tycoons and celebrities moved out.

Mrs Charveriat said the French exiles she had spoken to might agree “a bit” with Andy Street, the managing director of John Lewis who was forced to apologise after saying that France was “finished, sclerotic and downbeat”.

“But people aren’t pessimistic,” she added, stressing that the French who live abroad remain patriotic and that while they engage in “French-bashing” among themselves, they are defensive when foreigners engage in such criticism.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/french-say-au-revoir-to-france-over-two-million-french-people-now-live-abroad-and-most-are-crossing-the-channel-and-heading-to-london-9788348.html

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Who was it who said, "Government is not the enemy"?

That would be me, of course. :smile:

The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

"Those people who are not ruled by God will be governed by tyrants."

--William Penn

So if the US government is your tyrant, Frank... that's your own damned fault. :wink:

Greg

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The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

That means that Southern slaveholders who used the U.S. Constitution's Fugitive Slave Clause to get back their runaway human property were decent.

That means that, today, government employees who seize the property that others earn through their own labor are decent.

That means that government employees who imprison those who grow herbs for their own use or to trade with others are decent.

That means that government employees who fine or imprison those who pay whatever wage they want for a job are decent

That means that government employees who prosecute people who possess, trade, and sell weapons are decent.

That means Obama is decent.

Biden is decent.

"Feminized liberals" and Marxists at U.S. universities who are largely paid by federal grants are decent.

They are all decent because "The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it [does] not work for the indecent."

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Decency has nothing to do it. Decency somewhat describes where you are up and down the decency scale. It's not somewhere you go to. There is no decency destination. Sex is indecency all maxed out. Go ahead! Just close the bedroom door. If you're doing it in the barn, don't scare the horses. However, the need for another word here doesn't refute the refutation.

--Brant

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Winging it slightly, I'd think 'government' is a system of ideas, while 'governance' is a system of policies, constructed by some people who're supported by huge numbers of other people. Governance is people, not a deity, a floating abstraction. Their rationally self-interested morality (good will and decency too) will ordain whether governance remains true to principled government. If Greg's saying the individual person is not to be determined (but affected, sure) by some arbitrary existing governance - and the collective will - I applaud his conviction.

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"Those people who are not ruled by God will be governed by tyrants."

How's that working out for Iranians?

They are obviously not ruled by God.

That statement was referring to Americans and the American form of government, however I believe that it could also apply to other people. People who don't govern themselves need a government to do it for them... and that invites tyranny... either of a dictator, or of a tyrannical government.

Greg

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The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

That means that Southern slaveholders...

I'm not talking about slavery in the dead past, Frank... so you can put your well worn laundry list away.

I'm talking about right now how people enslave themselves to the government by their failure to govern their own behavior. Get a critical mass of indecent people failing to govern themselves, and they will create an indecent government in their own indecent image to govern them.

Greg

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Winging it slightly, I'd think 'government' is a system of ideas, while 'governance' is a system of policies, constructed by some people who're supported by huge numbers of other people.

A relevant distinction, Tony.

The nature of governance is directly linked to the nature of the huge numbers of people supporting the constructors.

The indecent can only create an indecent government.

Greg

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The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

That means that Southern slaveholders...

I'm not talking about slavery in the dead past, Frank... so you can put your well worn laundry list away.

I'm talking about right now how people enslave themselves to the government by their failure to govern their own behavior. Get a critical mass of indecent people failing to govern themselves, and they will create an indecent government in their own indecent image to govern them.

Greg

You are the one who brought up the U.S. Constitution and its Framers. The Constitution was written and implemented long before slavery was abolished. So if slavery is in the "dead past" and outside acceptable discussion, so is your beloved creation of U.S. government.

More to the point, you have made the claim that "The American Constitutional form of government" does "not work for the indecent."

That would mean that no indecent person could use the government to benefit himself and his indecent ends. That would mean that there is currently no federal office holder performing "indecent" (or immoral) actions through his current position.

Thus, Obama, Biden, Kerry, Holder, Lew, Duncan, Power and the rest of the happy liberal warriors are all either decent people--or the rest of the federal government refuses to follow any orders given by them.

Which is it?

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The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

That means that Southern slaveholders...

I'm not talking about slavery in the dead past, Frank... so you can put your well worn laundry list away.

I'm talking about right now how people enslave themselves to the government by their failure to govern their own behavior. Get a critical mass of indecent people failing to govern themselves, and they will create an indecent government in their own indecent image to govern them.

Greg

You are the one who brought up the U.S. Constitution and its Framers.

You conflated the two because of your fixation on the dead past.

I was referring to present day slavery to the government due to peoples' failure to govern their own behavior.

More to the point, you have made the claim that "
The American Constitutional form of government" does not work for the indecent."

Yes.

...and I've referred to this quotation many times.

"Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

--John Adams

Your own personal experience of government will match your own decency.

That would mean that no indecent person could use the government to benefit himself and his indecent ends.

What that actually means is that indecent people use the indecent government to benefit themselves and their indecent ends...

...for they're the ones who created it in their own indecent image.

Greg

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The French government was designed by liberal socialists to govern liberal socialists. The US government was uniquely created by moral men... specifically to govern moral men. The American Constitutional form of government was designed only to work for decent people... it dies not work for the indecent.

The Founding Fathers recognized the truth that liberty comes from God and not from the government, so if I live a good life deserving of liberty I already have it. Liberty and morality are always linked, just as immorality and slavery are always linked. So I'm the only one who can be my own enemy.

That means that Southern slaveholders...

I'm not talking about slavery in the dead past, Frank... so you can put your well worn laundry list away.

I'm talking about right now how people enslave themselves to the government by their failure to govern their own behavior. Get a critical mass of indecent people failing to govern themselves, and they will create an indecent government in their own indecent image to govern them.

Greg

You are the one who brought up the U.S. Constitution and its Framers.

You conflated the two because of your fixation on the dead past.

I was referring to present day slavery to the government due to peoples' failure to govern their own behavior.

More to the point, you have made the claim that "
The American Constitutional form of government" does "not work for the indecent."

Yes.

Your own personal experience of government will match your own decency.

That would mean that no indecent person could use the government to benefit himself and his indecent ends.

What that actually means is that indecent people use the indecent government to benefit themselves and their indecent ends...

...for they're the ones who created it in their own indecent image.

Greg

If you are entitled to discuss the Founders and their Constitution of the 1700's, I am entitled to discuss the slavery of the 1800's that the Constitution enabled. If one is in the "dead past," both are. Slavery was not decent, nor was the clause in the Constitution ("designed only to work for decent people") that helped protect it.

You write, "Your own personal experience of government will match your own decency." My personal experience is that the government hires thousands of tax collectors, gun grabbers, snoopers, busybodies, and legalized thieves and kidnappers. My personal experience is that the government, from Obama on down, is following an agenda that is borderline Bolshevik.

Is it your belief that if I were more "decent," I would see that Obama and his cohorts are also "decent"?

You write, "What that actually means is that indecent people use the indecent government to benefit themselves and their indecent ends...for they're the ones who created it in their own indecent image."

Government is not the enemy. Government is indecent and is used to benefit evil people and their indecent ends. Government is not the enemy.

Doublethink.

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If you are entitled to discuss the Founders and their Constitution of the 1700's, I am entitled to discuss the slavery of the 1800's that the Constitution enabled. If one is in the "dead past," both are.

But the difference between us is that I'm referring to the present, while you believe the historic slavery of the dead past still exists in the present.The flaw in your mindset is your religious faith in ideological purity. In your religion if someone is not perfect, everything they say and do is null and void.

Is it your belief that if I were more "decent," I would see that Obama and his cohorts are also "decent"?

No.

To the degree that you were more decent, To that same degree the government would leave you alone to enjoy your life, your, liberty, and to pursue your own happiness..

My personal experience is that the government hires thousands of tax collectors , gun grabbers, snoopers, busybodies, and legalized thieves and kidnappers. My personal experience is that the government, from Obama on down, is following an agenda that is borderline Bolshevik.

Well that's your own damned fault, Frank.

The government can only impinge upon your life to the extent that you grant it your sanction by failing to live a life deserving of a decent government. Your own personal experience of government has always been completely up to you by how you chose to live...

...so there is no one for you to angrily blame except yourself.

Greg

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The boycott of tyranny.

It's kind of hard to do with with a totalitarian tyranny.

--Brant

It's impossible for even totalitarian tyranny to ever become total. For the bigger the bureaucracy, the more incompetence, and the bigger the cracks through which to fall if you so choose.

America enjoys a unique advantage in its design of a values based government, because it answers to the very same higher moral law that everyone else does. This makes each individual personally responsible for how the government treats them by how they live their life.

I tell you, if you live a life deserving of a decent government... the government will treat you decently.

Greg

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