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By Guillaume Garnier and Alex Lantier
Bernard Arnault, the master of Louis Vuitton: with a fortune of about US$80bn this plutocrat is now France's richest man.
Since January alone, the wealth of French billionaires has increased by a whopping 12.2 percent. This compares to 7.1 percent growth for Japanese billionaires, 6.3 percent for Chinese billionaires and 1.2 percent for American billionaires.
The class divide revealed by the figures in the Bloomberg report could not be more stark. On the one hand, Macron arrogantly denounces workers opposed to his policies as “lazy” because they earn €9.88 per hour (€7.83 after tax) and criticize his cuts to social spending and income taxes for the rich. On the other hand, he is overseeing the transfer of more than $900,000 every hour into the pockets of this tiny group of financial parasites, corporate raiders and fashion heiresses.
The two richest individuals in France, Bernard Arnault and François Pinault, have raked in an additional $22.3 billion during this calendar year. Arnault, the chairman of luxury products conglomerate LVMH Moët Louis Vuitton SE, is the richest person in Europe and the fourth richest person in the world, with an estimated fortune of $76.4 billion.
Pinault, who has a fortune of $35.5 billion, is the founder of luxury conglomerate Kering, the owner of brands such as Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, and of the financial holding company Artemis.
As Macron eliminates the Tax on Large Fortunes (ISF) and slashes corporate tax, the surge in the stock market values for LVMH and Kering is going directly into Arnault’s and Pinault’s pockets. Bloomberg wrote, “Renewed demand for luxury goods from China and a growing presence in e-commerce have lifted sales and propelled both holding groups into the ranks of France’s most valuable companies. A surge in art sales at Pinault’s auction house Christie’s has also contributed.”
These figures make clear that the policies of the Macron administration are based on lies. Masses of people are being told they must accept cuts to wages and salaries, the evisceration of unemployment benefits, a broad expansion of temporary work, planned cuts to health care and pensions, and the end of lifetime employment in the public sector because there is no money. But this is a political fraud.
In fact, there is plenty of money. The problem—in France as around the rest of the world—is that it is being diverted into the bank accounts of a parasitic and money-mad ruling elite.
In the run-up to the 2012 French presidential elections, economist Thomas Piketty published a report on wealth inequality in France based on 2010 statistics. It showed that the top 10 percent of French society held 62 percent of the wealth, and the top 1 percent held 24 percent of the wealth. The bottom half of French society, in contrast, held only 4 percent of the wealth. After eight years of economic crisis and social austerity, the class divide is doubtless even more blatant today.
The social inequality revealed in such reports is a condemnation of the capitalist system. Last year, the world was shocked by news that just eight billionaires owned as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity. The Bloomberg report underscores that French capitalism—despite its pretensions to be a kinder, gentler and more regulated social order—is riven by the same insoluble social contradictions as world capitalism as a whole.
There is little in terms of social physiognomy and outlook to distinguish the billionaires who dominate French society and economic life from their US or British counterparts.
Arnault, whose family ran a local construction firm, used his political connections and availability of state subsidies to restructure and downsize the textile industry, vastly increase his fortune, and ultimately acquire LVMH in the 1980s. He left in his wake a trail of shuttered factories and devastated communities across northern France, which is now an electoral base of the neo-fascist National Front. He has become fabulously wealthy by strategically acquiring ever more fashion and luxury brands to add to his conglomerate. He endorsed Macron last year.
Similarly, Pinault came to prominence in the 1980s as a financier and corporate raider, making vast sums by restructuring and downsizing bankrupt wood and paper companies while pocketing state subsidies designed to help distressed firms. Like Arnault, he used this initial fortune to acquire an empire of luxury, finance and retail firms through which he became one of France’s wealthiest billionaires.
Françoise Bettencourt Meyers: The 64-year old L'Oreal princess controls more than $42 billion, richest woman on earth.
As for Bettencourt-Meyers, she inherited her wealth last year from her mother, the late Liliane Bettencourt. Bettencourt’s holding company owned a massive stake in L’Oréal, the cosmetics firm of Bettencourt-Meyers’ grandfather Eugène Schueller, a leading Nazi-collaborationist and financer of French fascist groups in World War II.
A financial aristocracy has emerged in France that is no less entrenched, arrogant and sclerotic than the feudal aristocracy overthrown by the French revolution two centuries ago. As Macron seeks to remove all barriers to their enrichment by liquidating the social rights won by the working class in France over decades of struggle in the 20th century, the only appropriate response of the working class is to fight for the expropriation of their ill-gotten wealth.
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3 comments
Does anyone know what France does with its jobless poor? It couldn’t be worse than what we do with ours, but I’m curious.
Thanks for this shocking news- a bit worse than I expected, but it boosts the validity of the demands of the gilets jaunes.
Bonjour, and that is the reason why, whatever you may have read in FR national, international medias, from News channels, Mobilization and the motivation of hundreds of thousands of Citizens in Gilets Jaunes is likely to be sustainable, as voiced below from 3 representatives of Gilets Jaunes:
December 15, 2018 – Paris – Speech to all people of France, to the attention of the President of the Republic; Mr Emmanuel Macron:
‘ It has already been a month since popular yellow jackets mobilization shakes France, this movement does not belong to anyone but to everyone, it is the expression of a people that for the last 40 years has been dispossessed of everything that gave them hope in their lives and in future, and could make them great.
For some 40 years , successive Elected, elections time after time, Betrayals, lies, dropouts are happening with greater frequency. Yes, Mr. President, we are exhausted, yes, we are filled with anger, because we found no other means than to make hear our voices, except to humbly put on again this now famous yellow jacket, yes, we are exhausted due to a colossal tax pressure, which takes away from our country; “vital energy” to our entrepreneurs, craftsmen, small traders, creators, workers, while a small elite is still untaxed. Public expenditures and taxes accounting for between 46% of GDP! While health and social assistance accounting for some one third of annual GDP. Despite this, we were told Government cannot pay decently the disabled, the military, the nurses, the professors salaries, and so many other people we haven’t named, as long is the list.
The question is:
What on earth are you doing with all of that money?
Our intuition, our eyes scanning, simple citizens are in the know now! Money was gone; it evaporated from undue privileges, paid commissions, economical- political cronyism, endless retirements, some other trusted servants, etc…
It is blatantly unfair! There is a dramatic inequity and it is something that needs to be considered!
While people of France are forgotten, left in social and economic distress, we no longer tolerate the situation, we also say in no uncertain terms, We don’t want to live in a permanent emergency, living on public assistance, accessing to aid flows from this bulimic Government, which is always asking for more, while we people are given back less, we want to live free, free to act properly, Property rights are a guarantee that we get to keep what we own, we can dispose of what we own, enjoy the fruits of our labour, Free to create and to invent without facing all the way the terrible impact of the area of tax administration and collection. We want to pay reasonable taxes, also in order to help individuals in our country. We must be able to live with dignity, we should have a right to decent housing.
We demand the lowering of taxes and duties with regard to essential goods. food; energy; transport, housing, otherwise, we demand a significant drop in salaries, pensions, privileges, also current and expected pensions allocated to any Government with respective elected members, senior officials.
our anger lays not so much in the “empty stomach” consideration, our anger is more pervasive and deeper than ever.
pressure emerging over several decades, We have no control over policies in our own country,
Let us not forget Lisbon Treaty texts adopted while have been rejected on last 2005, the 13 years of powerful referenda we just do not forget about, and all the promises that were not fulfilled, we do not forget or miss anything!
Mr President, you told us about it has been in the grip of a democratic malaise evidenced. And it is so True!
How do you propose to address that challenge?
Nothing! is our answer today!
And yes, we are aware you would very embarrassed that, we people can be heard, and our hope for the people of France is that they may be enabled to speak clearly. But we are simply bored to get crumbs from your Government and elected representatives allow us. We want to make you understand this real requirement of a referendum, in order to get through this democratic crisis, by adding a draft to amend the Constitution, introducing RIC: referendum and initiative rights, draft in four important respects; giving the French people the right to initiate Referendum, in order to amend constitution and to prohibit any amendment outside a Referendum. The people must be given a deciding voice, the right to draft and to repeal legislation people chose to consider, to give people the right to hold a Referendum on all the amendments voted by the Parliament, the right to require from President of the Republic to submit to the People all international treaties and agreements before ratifying them.
Please Note that the text we wrote has no objective other than that to offer back to the French people its sovereign role, and certainly not to threaten our French Republic; our aim is not to destabilize French Government. we think our demand is not unrealistic or unreasonable, give us back mastery of our Destiny.
People should have sole power to decide, Yes, we are pacifists, but know this; even forced at bayonet point can’t brake down, force to let down the use of our yellow vests.
Mr president, as you stated, to try to resolve the democratic matter in France, Hear our word, this injunction from your people.In order to maintain our freedom to make decisions and our control, sovereignty and freedom are for us an absolute priority.
Long live France, Long live the Republic! Long live the Yellow Vests ‘
(additional informations: ‘Draft was sent to Prime Minister yesterday night, including formal request of RIC ‘ ; Référendum d’Initiative Citoyenne (referendum and initiative rights)
(at the end of Speech, people sang the Marseillaise, then, the crowd began chanting: RIC!)
(video in FR language is here: https://www.facebook.com/maxime.nicolle/videos/10217810962523098/)
personal note: please bear in mind that a huge numbers of Yellow Vests do consider themselves as simple Citizens, voluntaries on their way to get their Voices heard! it is more about an Apolitical Movement in general! it is very important to point it out, because Gilets Jaunes and many other frenchies with or without yellow vests on, just do not trust politicians anymore. They have had more than enough to hear of right, left, far left to the far right movements, any parties’ symbols in general. That’s it! :)