Jeff Springer
Finally, no discussion of highly taxed nations would be complete without including France. With a top marginal tax rate on average workers of about 40% (and a top tax on high-income workers of nearly 50%), France is long-known for sacrificing economic growth to social benefits handed out by government. As Charles Wheelan writes in his book Naked Economics, “France is a good place to be a struggling artist, and a bad place to be an Internet entrepreneur.” Despite being the fifth largest economy in the world, France’s GDP per capita stands at just $34,205 – only 23rd on the IMF’s ranking. A study done several years ago by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found that “France’s tax burden as a percentage of gross domestic product last year rose to 43.7%, from 43.4% a year earlier”, according to ThisFrenchLife. A 2009 Wall Street Journal piece likewise finds France’s popular universal healthcare system “has been in the red since 1989”, with an expected 2010 shortfall of €15 billion.
