The power to tax is the power to destroy.

Leftist politicians certainly know this. They use this principle to their advantage; they always have and always will. Large swathes of their leftist constituencies want them to; they vote for precisely this, and the pols deliver, at least in appearance; see Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and her infamous Met gala "Tax the Rich" gown. The power to tax is wielded to "get the rich," in other words, to punish the successful; the problem is that without producers, an economy comes apart. This never fails; it happens every time, and now it will be happening in France, where that nation has just placed the far left in power, and the productive are looking to the exits.

The surprise victory of the New Popular Front (NFP) in France's elections has set alarm bells ringing for the nation's wealthy as the hard-left alliance plans to roll out an eye-watering 90% income tax on high earners.

Even before the election took place, financial advisers reported a huge influx of enquiries off the back of Emmanuel Macron's decision to call a snap election, with well-off French citizens considering a move to more fiscally favourable territories such as Italy, the historic tax haven of Switzerland, and Spain. 

But the victory of the NFP over Macron's centrists and the hard-right National Rally (RN) this Sunday has forced France's elite to seriously consider how their fortunes would fare given the very real prospect of a dramatic tax-and-spend economic policy.

Sounds familiar, does it not? Here in the United States, we see a similar phenomenon, wherein people vote with their feet, moving from high-tax states like New York, New Jersey, and California to lower-tax states like Florida and Texas. The new French governing coalition has plans that will look familiar as well:

The hard-left alliance plans a huge spending spree that would deliver a major boost to minimum wage and public sector pay, reduce the pension age from 64 to 60 and freeze prices of essential goods - measures it claims will cost some €150 billion over three years.

But Macron's camp warned it could cost as much as €300 billion and will entail the scrapping of tax breaks and credits for companies as well as soaring income tax. 

Never once has any leftist government correctly estimated the costs of their massive government giveaways; they always end up being more expensive than imagined. And never once, unless held in place by force, have the productive meekly stayed in place to be soaked - and who could blame them?

See Related: Europe Doesn't Want to Be Saved 

France's Left Pulls Off Shocking Comeback Finishing First in Parliamentary Elections

It's as inevitable as the sunrise. The productive, the wealthy who fuel a nation's economy, will be heading for the exits, and France will be poorer for it. The power to tax is the power to destroy, and the French electorate has, in effect, just voted to destroy their economy. The burden of onerous taxation will, in time, fall on those who can't easily afford to relocate to Madrid, Bern, or the Italian Riviera.

It's baffling, isn't it? Socialism is the proverbial bad penny; no matter how many times it fails, sooner or later, some group of people will claim, "That wasn't real socialism," or decide that a socialist Utopia can be had if they just put the right Top Men in charge and try again. Again, as always, it will fail. It failed in the Soviet Union, and it will fail in France.

Of course, there is the other problem, the one that afflicts almost all of Europe; but that's a story for another time.