[witek]

Hilarious. It baffles me how this country continues to operate given the massive public spending/benefits, delightful reforms (e.g. proposed 80% tax rate for high-earners) and pretty xenophobic view on immigration. ALL of my (highly-skilled) French friends do not plan to return in the foreseeable future.

[simias]

While the situation in TFA is spectacularly ridiculous and shameful for me as a french I don't think it warrants this kind of gratuitous french bashing. Unless of course you want to explain to us what the french taxation laws have to do with this particular court decision.

Also it's 75%, not 80%. That might not be very significant overall but it makes me doubt you really know what you're talking about.

[rguillebert]

And it's the marginal tax rate (beyond 1 million €).

[witek]

I guess my comment wasn't strictly limited to this court decision but I wouldn't consider it as French-bashing. I have nothing against your country and compatriots, and I have enjoyed many fun moments there. However, I and my two French flatmates are genuinely curious how France can continue on its current public-spending/entrepreneurship-throttling trajectory.

[mtrimpe]

>ALL of my (highly-skilled) French friends do not plan to return in the foreseeable future.

You are aware that there might be a tiny hint of selection bias at play there... right? ;)

[JoeAltmaier]

Sure! All skilled folks that leave France, don't want to go back. That's the point.

[bru]

I'm not surprised by such a comment, but finding it on HN saddens me.

xenophoby? Oh USA, building a wall to keep your neighbours out of your lawn, please tell me more!

Our economy? Of course American governement-sponsored 'liberalism' is a beacon for the free world, and dissidents are morons. Please have a look at this recent article by Paul Krugman: The Plot Against France[0].

Your high-skilled French friends? I have the luck to be put in that population. What I see around me is that we travel and work world-wide, until we start a family most of the time.

0: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/11/opinion/krugman-the-plot-a...

[witek]

I don't live in the US, I'm much closer - in London (apparently, the sixth largest French city). I'm not arguing the fact that it can be a lovely country for a French citizen and that you may want to retire there, given the generous benefits you'd be receiving.

However, I know from a few of my friends, who were settling in France for personal reasons, how painful the immigration process can be, especially if you're not white/caucasian.

[judk]

Europe has an ocean to keep most of its poorer would-be neighbors away. You can't wave away geography. The US is comparable to Europe, not one country in Europe.

[doe88]

That baffles me how some people are so much bitter toward France they take any occasion to take a cheap shot.

> xenophobic view on immigration.

Given this ranking http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_foreign-bo... I don't think we have any advice to receive from anybody on the question of immigration. Granted there are some problems ampiflified by the economic crisis but given the rates of immigration we had to absorb in the previous decades I would say the situation is not that bad.

[bmelton]

Why does one have to be in a free-bordered country to critique another nation's immigration policies?

As an American, I disagree with American immigration policies, and also disagree with France's. Is my opinion discounted because I'm an American?

[DenisM]

>my (highly-skilled) French friends do not plan to return in the foreseeable future

Selection bias alert! You're more likely to meet people who swore to never return than those don't mind returning.

[epsylon]

Not to mention the fact that software engineering salaries are notoriously low in France compared to the US. Thus most people who have emigrated have strong financial incentives to stay there. (Well, at least until they have cancer and crappy insurance or they have to send their kids to college)

[jstalin]

Printed money is a helluva drug.

[Symmetry]

France is part of the Euro, and it's pretty much the Germans who decide when new Euros get printed. They haven't proven sympathetic to the idea of printing many recently.