France's Super-Rich: Tax Us, Sarkozy

This tends to happen when a country has a history of sending its wealthiest people to the guillotine.

France's super-rich have answered Warren Buffett's plea to raise the taxes on the wealthy, with a group of 16 high-profile businessfolk calling on President Nicolas Sarkozy to increase their already-pretty-high tax rate. The 16, including the heiress to the L'Oreal family fortune, Liliane Bettencourt, as well as the presidents of such companies as Air France-KLM and Total Oil, have signed a petition saying they're more than happy to fork over a “special contribution” to help France climb out of its deficit, in addition to the 40-per-cent income tax rate they're already paying. Sarkozy has been tossing around the idea of cutting various tax exemptions for the wealthy, so getting the A-OK from France's upper-upper-crust ought to help his plight, even if he hasn't faced nearly as much opposition as his American counterpart's attempt to pass even the smallest revenue-raising measure. We suppose that's one of the (very few) benefits of living in France: Even its billionaires have a socialist streak.