Word: taxed
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...nobody takes culture more seriously than the French. They subsidize it generously; they cosset it with quotas and tax breaks. French media give it vast amounts of airtime and column inches. Even fashion magazines carry serious book reviews, and the Nov. 5 announcement of the Prix Goncourt - one of more than 900 French literary prizes - was front-page news across the country. (It went to Gilles Leroy's novel Alabama Song.) Every French town of any size has its annual opera or theater festival, nearly every church its weekend organ or chamber-music recital...
Cultural subsidies in France are ubiquitous. Producers of just about any nonpornographic movie can get an advance from the government against box-office receipts (most loans are never fully repaid). Proceeds from an 11% tax on cinema tickets are plowed back into subsidies. Canal Plus, the country's leading pay-TV channel, must spend 20% of its revenues buying rights to French movies. By law, 40% of shows on TV and music on radio must be French. Separate quotas govern prime-time hours to ensure that French programming is not relegated to the middle of the night. The government provides...
...government may well try to foster private participation by tinkering with the tax system. "In the U.S. you can donate a painting to a museum and take a full deduction," says art expert Boïcos. "Here it's limited. Here the government makes the important decisions. But if the private sector got more involved and cultural institutions got more autonomy, France could undergo a major artistic revival." Sarkozy's appointment of Christine Albanel as Culture Minister looks like a vote for individual initiative: as director of Versailles, she has cultivated private donations and partnerships with businesses. The Louvre...
...Should my tax dollars be spent on a multimillionaire's travel? Absolutely not," says Daniel Borochoff, president of charity watchdog American Institute of Philanthropy. "Wink-wink, nudge-nudge deals like this ruin the integrity of the whole sector...
...doubters - have learned over the years not to count him out too quickly. In the weeks leading up to the April 2006 election, Berlusconi trailed by double digits in the polls. But then the Old Silvio kicked into gear: he made unrealistic but enticing promises to eliminate the housing tax, at a small meeting of business leaders, he used a vulgar expression to describe his opponents - then he repeated the same word to thousands at a basketball arena in Naples. Instead of losing by 10 percentage points, he lost by a few thousand votes. Now he must again find...