COCA-COLA 1 SOCIALISM 0

France is a country that seen its share of dire moments. They are generally acknowledged as experts in the practice of surrendering their country to raiding hordes and the United States has developed a knack for getting it back for them, accepting a good provincial Cabernet and a statue as thanks. But nowadays France and the U.S. currently share a common condition; they are both deep in debt. But Being French means never having to put down your arrogance and display some common sense so they decided to take an American icon—Coca-Cola and hold them hostage in a knee jerk socialist attempt to generate revenue.

Instead of the French addressing the multiple layers of bureaucratic fat clinging to their various levels of government, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has come to the obvious conclusion that among all of the austerity measures available to him, one of the most effective ways to replenish the government bank account would be to tax sugared sodas by a miniscule one cent per can. It’s not polite to just come out and just say to the French citizens that we need more money and so we are going to just take it from you when you buy a soda. No...Taking a page out of the Obama style of, heads I win, tails you lose playbook, Fillon is putting a health spin on his cash grab, figuring citizens will forgo the Coca-Cola and opt for the more nutritious more expensive alternatives.

Fillon’s statements appear to be an enigma in that he wishes to tax Coca-Cola drinks, one cent per can, in order to generate revenue for the flailing economy. He’s counting on his fat over indulging soda fiends to buy a heck of a lot of soda to make a scant impact on their dire fiscal condition, yet he declares this a national health referendum on the ever increasing waistlines of the French citizenry.

The French Coca- Cola affiliate took the opportunity to blow the whistle on this blatant socialist cash grab’s logic gap and did this in the best possible way for capitalists to get their point across—by threatening to withhold money. Coca-Cola said that it would have to rethink a new 17 million euro production-line investment in light if this stigmatization of their product.

The French, mistaking corporate expenditures for some kind of entitlement, immediately freaked out, apparently forgetting that the presence of a private company isn’t a public right. One of the French officials actually went so far as to suggest to the soda giant that they “make more efforts on non-sugar beverages.”

The union representatives for the Coca-Cola employees were nervous and scared, worried about the future of their plant. It was a sober reminder that no matter how much power unions attempt to wield, they’re dead in the absence of a host company.

Socialism doesn’t happen without consequences. When a government decides to harass or tax a business, that company might just decide one day to move to a more friendly environment. At one cent a can, I think we all see just how expensive socialism risks being. France may have to surrender yet again.