The Collapse of the Third Republic by William L. Shirer, Simon and Shuster 1969
Note: Shirer can best be described as an FDR Liberal. So his work is slanted but barring that, pretty good info there.
Excerpt from p 157 (Emphasis added)
"...THE POWER, THE GREED, AND THE FEARS OF THE UPPER CLASS
We confront here, in the fall of Herriot that spring of 1925, and in the frank remarks of an eminent jurist a year later when the financial predicament of the state was even worse despite the frantic efforts of six successive governments to cope with it, some of the abuses of the Third Republic which during the next and last fifteen years would so fatally sap its strength.
The power of a small elite which possessed most of the wealth was greater than the power of the republican government elected by the people, presumably to run the country in the interest of all the citizens. This group was determined to preserve its privileged position and thus its money. In effect, since the triumph of the Republic over President MacMahon there had been a virtual alliance between the possessor class and the Republic, which it manipulated through its control of the Press, the financing of political parties, and the handling of its vast funds to influence the fiscal policies of government.
The mass of the people might elect a radical Chamber of Deputies, as it had in 1924, with a mandate to enforce economic, financial, and social reforms on the country. No matter. The bankers and the businessmen had learned the technique of how in a democratic society to thwart the majority, as the fall of Herriot had demonstrated. Not only in the elections of 1924 but again in those of 1932 and 1936, as we shall see, the voters sent leftish majorities to the Chamber. But they quickly melted away, not because of a change of mind in the electorate (there were no elections in between) but because of political trading in Parliament by the elected representatives, who in each case, after approving a government of the Left, shifted their support to a government either of the Right or of the safe center.
Worried for a moment by the outcome of the elections, the upper classes were soon reassured, at least for a time, by the ability of parliament to frustrate the will of the majority of the electorate. And more and more, as the last years of the Third Republic ticked off, the wealthy found it difficult to put the interest of the nation above that of their class. Faced with specific obligations to the country if the state were not to flounder in a financial morass, they shrank from meeting them.
The Republic might go under but their valuables would be preserved. In the meantime they would not help keep it afloat by paying a fair share of the taxes. The tax burden was for others to shoulder. If that were understood by the politicians, the Republic could continue. If not . . . were there not other forms of government possible which promised more security for entrenched wealth? The thoughts of some of the biggest entrepreneurs began to turn to the Fascist “experiment” in Italy and to the growing success of the Nazi Party in Germany..."
I highlighted that segment to show that the French Parliament of that period was acting the same way that our Congress seems to act. No matter who gets in, nothing seems much to change. In the case of the French, it got worse and worse until the system was paralyzed, which for some was just what they wanted. Unfortunately, the paralysis stayed until the Germans invaded. Too late then.
The French tax system was heavily based on 'use' taxes. The poor (and the French had them in gobs) paid on 100% of their earnings. The Wealthy, on a much lower % of their income which they thought only just. The problem was that the cost of rebuilding France after the war was tremendous, there was not enough money amongst the poor to pay for it. But any scheme to tax the Middle Class or the Wealthy was met with savage opposition. And so it went right up to WWII.
I am of the opinion that we are going to have to have significant tax increases along with savage budget cuts to balance the budget. Yet we got some guy named Norquist (that a French name?) screaming 'Death First! to tax hikes. (I am sure he must be French)
Ain't gonna work.The way to handle tax hikes is to have them become effective after the cuts are in place and operative. But there are going to have to be tax hikes because the public will not stand for 40-50% cuts in the Federal budget in one lump.
Shirer also wrote :The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
After reading these two books, one can only conclude the best got killed in WWI, leaving the dregs to run things. And they did, right into the ground.
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Originally Posted by blueridge
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