This isn’t particularly
philosophical, but I thought it was fairly interesting. This is from a story in
today’s New
York Times about globalization. “Mr. Chirac and Lionel Jospin, the prime minister,
who is his rival in forthcoming presidential elections, have detailed competing
proposals to tax the profits of globalization to provide aid funds.” So if I
read that right, both major
candidates in France are proposing tax increases
the point of which will be to spend more on foreign aid. The contrast with some other countries (e.g. any
English-speaking country not called ‘New Zealand’) could hardly be starker. I
read somewhere recently a claim that Chirac was to the left of Bill Clinton. At
the time I thought it was ridiculously simplistic, but now I’m not so sure.