Sarkozy to abolish GDP, defend against sovereign funds and other predators
Buried at the end of an IHT article on French president Nicolas Sarkozy's plan to tax the Internet and raise levies on blank media is this doozy: abolishing gross domestic product in favor of a better metric of happiness, and defending the economy "sovereign wealth funds and other financial predators."
In the 45-minute speech, Sarkozy declared the death of the 35-hour week, suggested that large companies may have to double or triple the part of their profit they are obliged to share with employees and vowed to replace gross domestic product with a more holistic indicator of economic welfare that he has commissioned from two Nobel laureates in economics, Amarthya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz. He also said that he would put a state bank in charge of defending French industry against sovereign wealth funds and other financial predators.Link (via Beyond the Beyond)
the latest
latest episodes
...Yep, leave it to the Frogs to go and want to screw things up for the whole world once again. Makes me wish we'd let Hitler keep'em.
Don't get too cocky #1...the US is only (at best) 25 years behind the EU when it comes to implementing socialist policies and other examples of economic ignorance.
Posted in "Emotional"?
When trolling is disguised as journalism, don't feed it.
#1, sorry if I'm being obtuse here, but what's the connection between this post/the IHT article and France wanting to "screw things up for the whole world", once again or otherwise?
Buried in the hysteria is this interesting tidbit about how France means to deal with the problem of compensating artists in a filesharing economy:
I also wonder what sort of penalty Mr. Sarkozy has in mind for rogue underground econometrists who secretly compile GDP statistics in defiance of his policy.
yeah, Sarkozy is all about his public image, he changed is wife for a former model, and will change the GDP for a faster growing metric...
Here we have, the worst french president since the World War 2... Incompetent, able to say one thing and do the exact opposite with a smiling face, enemy of freedom (attacking civil rights, social rights, internet rights; databasing and promoting surveillance of everyone) see
http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5B347%5D=x-347-559597
Solely interested in his wealth and public image, corrupted, specialist at using verbal logoreah to confuse people, plays the good christian seeking the pope and at the same time promote the worst rules against poors, minorities and strangers.
What a good president! Country is f....d for a long time.
I'm french. And american. Yeah, worst of both worlds.
I didn't want to return to the USA while Bush was still around. However, I now think it's time to go...
I'm ashamed, horribly ashamed. (That said, the socialist opposition was even more ridiculous)
Cory needs to turn his BS filters on
"I'm ashamed, horribly ashamed. (That said, the socialist opposition was even more ridiculous)"
Oh really? For weeks before the election we heard the media imply, or explicitly claim that Royal had no program, while her program was extremely detailed and available for all to see on her website.
Yes, we've been fucked over, by the corporate media.
Keep one thing in mind: 53% of voters aged 18-65 voted for Ségolène. 65% of voters 65 and up voted for Sarkozy. That's right, those who won't work anymore elected the "work more" guy.
Sarkozy is not going to last long, is he?
It's embarrassing for all of us French citizens. I didn't vote for him, but his showbiz-y antics and endless bragging and boasting are embarrassing all the same when you share the same country. He's our own little Berlusconi, a BS-heavy president...
Here's my question about the "pay musicians and others in the music industry" part: Who gets to decide who gets paid and how much? That seems like a completely impossible way to "solve" the piracy problem.
Why on earth is this being spun as another terrible Sarkozy initiative?
I don't like Sarkozy and his neanderthal attitude to multicularism and immigration policy anymore than others, but shifting away from GDP would be a great move.
GDP is a pretty rubbish measure of welfare--look at GDP ratings, where the US leads, versus the UNDP's Human Development Index, where failings in American education, social services, income inequality and healthcare put its apparent wealth in perspective. Incidentally, if Sen is put in charge of developing a new metric of welfare (not of "happiness"--that's something else entirely), it may well end up looking like the HDI, since Sen had a hand in its development as well.
It wouldn't be easy, but GDP is a horribly impoverished metric that has distorted national policy priorities for far too long. If a major economy like France moves away from using it, so much he better.
Now sovereign wealth funds are another matter. I'm fairly agnostic on them. But let's not dismiss every Sarkozy policy pronouncement as terrible just because he's a terrible person. Save that kind of ad hominem dismissal for Bush.
@14 wrote:
But Sen has been pretty clear that HDI is intended as a way of more validly comparing the progress of developing countries...that it is not intended as a way to evaluate developed nations.
France's real GDP growth has been anemic and this seems like a fairly transparent attempt by Sarkozy to simply wish that problem away by simply introducing a different metric.
a happiness metric:
http://www.grossinternationalhappiness.org/
works for some
when did Kevin McDonald of Kids in the Hall become the president of France anyway?
Sarkozy has a record of making unrealistic and often mutually exclusive promises. For instance, now he's talking about replacing GDP by HDI as a measure of progress in France. But his reforms of Social security are in effect making health care more expensive in France. So even if we avoid looking at the stagnant GDP figure, we are going to see a stagnant or failing "happiness index"...
@ #16 - Since we're comparing him to celebrities, I've always thought Sarkozy looks in some photos like an unholy fusion of Jerry Lewis and Sylvester Stallone. Which --given longstanding French cultural worship of those two dubious American icons-- seems sadly appropriate.
@ #18 - Actually, Jerry Lewis and Sylvester Stallone are NOT favorites of the French public anymore. And haven't been for a long time! Please update your stereotypes, people ;-)
how do they feel about the King of Bhutan?
Good Lord, it sounds like France is about to surrender to itself!
Sorry to bust your cosy French-bashing, folks, but Sarkozy already surrendered the country to, in order:
1) Corporations,
2) his pal GWB,
3) Carla Bruni.
Obviously.
@#22:
"2) his pal GWB"
If I may ask - how so?
@ #19 - According to #10, 65% of voters aged 65 and up voted for Sarkozy. My bet is on that demographic being one that is still enamored with Jerry & Sly.
I mean, in the ludicrous world of stereotypes, anyway. ;-)
@ #15
So, what, failing at education, social services, socio-economic equality, racial integration, and healthcare is alright, as long as there are enough rich people in the country?
"sovereign wealth funds" - This is a reference to China's dollar stockpile more than anything else. China is creating investment funds to spend the money.
Good catch, Cory!
a little jingo tonic here:
France best, U.S. worst in preventable death ranking
By Will Dunham Reuters
Published: January 8, 2008
WASHINGTON: France, Japan and Australia rated best and the United States worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday.