What caught my eye this week.
I read an interesting article this week about a former US politician who now lives in France.
The gist is that having failed to transform US society to his more liberal tastes – we’d say socialist in the UK – the former Democrat Jim McDermott chose to move to France instead:
Today McDermott calls himself an immigrant. He lives alone. He barely speaks French. But he’s a big fan of the French motto ‘Liberté, égalité, fraternité,’ and says that communal spirit is evident both in his everyday interactions with his neighbors and how the French government treats its people.
When he arrived in France, he needed to fill a few prescriptions but didn’t have a French primary care doctor. The pharmacist looked at his empty pill bottles and refilled them, no questions asked. When McDermott finally got a French physician, he received a brand-new CPAP machine at no cost. A month later, someone came to make sure it was working properly.
“Coming to France is like a drink of cold water,” he says. “Once you’ve had this experience, it’s easy to see all the ways in the U.S. you’re getting screwed — well, not screwed per se, but definitely overcharged.”
It’s a thought-provoking admission, albeit one that recalls a challenge often issued by the far right: “If you don’t like how things are, why don’t you F-off leave then?”
(Well, because many people cannot, realistically, for starters. But let’s put that to one side for now.)
Go your own way
I remember being struck 30-odd years ago by the politics of Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash.
This science-fiction classic is today remembered mostly for what it foresaw – and got wrong, of course – about technology, especially the coming Internet-everywhere era.
But Stephenson’s portrayal of a world where people signed-up to join different ‘affinities’ that most matched their personal politics – with financial and legal consequences, and regardless of geography – was striking, too.
No nationalism. Extreme individualism.
Going through my student-y anarchist phase at the time (in an academic sense) I’m not sure I even recognised this as the dystopian vision I’d now clearly see it as.
I’ve heard that some ultra-libertarian sorts in the US still don’t get the joke, and consider Snow Crash a bit of a Bible.
It’s not hard to see how signing up to a regime of very low taxes, a fine-based legal system, and a policy of extreme neutrality, say, might appeal to those whose appetites were whetted by William Rees-Mogg’s also prophetic The Sovereign Individual.
And to be fair, after the Brexit schism in the UK and looking at polarised party politics in the US, the appeal of only having to deal with, support, and be held accountable by those who share your values is pretty relatable, whichever side you’re on.
Little lies
Let’s say you believe, like I approximately do, that we should have a flat and ultra-simplified tax rate of perhaps 30%, across all income and gains, 0% corporation tax, that the state does too much for the wealthy (and older) middle class but not enough to lift up the young and properly poor, and that the very rich should pay a wealth tax. (Maybe 1% annually on assets over £5m – and they should be publicly lauded and celebrated for it, too).
I’ll never be able to vote for such fiscal policy. Existing parties might even see some of those desires as contradictory. (I don’t think they are, but that’s my point).
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could opt into a group who shared my views?
Well yes, until you think about the realities.
What ‘club’ with the means to actually support them would welcome in the poor and hopeless?
What to do with the unrepresented and destitute outside your front door?
Who pays for the army and the border police?
And so on.
Snow Crash touches on these issues, as well as offering (from ancient memory) satirical solutions. Private security, obviously, and swarms of nano-bots that keep the individual safe from rival factions.
Moving to another country, like the former US politician did, seems more practical in the real world .
Through this lens, our intractable immigration issues might be seen in a more generous light as a vote for Western-style capitalism with a safety net, as much as the global poor wanting to share our material prosperity.
I’ve even half-joked to friends that perhaps countries could opt-into being governed by wealthier neighbours. That the US, say, could operate overseas on a sort of franchise system.
(I suppose some would argue this is what the EU does on its Eastern flank. But that’s a can of worms for another day!)
Landslide
I’m curious: as it’s an election year, what would your perfect national political party offer in terms of tax, spending, and personal finance and investing?
Share your thoughts in the comments below. (But let’s not get into third-rail, off-topic political stuff like the death penalty or defunding the police or whatnot. I’ve tried to stick to the financial stuff, please reciprocate…)
Have a great weekend.
