By Greg Hazley
Maurice Levy, the CEO of Publicis, echoed billionaire Warren Buffet’s recent call for increased taxes on the wealthy with his own plea for the most privileged members of French and European society to “take up a heavier share” in taxes.
“I am not a masochist; I do not love taxes,” Levy wrote in an op-ed to the Financial Times. “But right now this is important and just.”
Levy said dismal economic talk is “intolerable” noting he has run Publicis for 23 years and is accustomed to “tough competition and downturns,” and adding, “but I cannot simply accept decline.”
While he acknowledged the “social model” of Western Europe is not sustainable, Levy said those countries have the assets to thrive if reforms take place.
“Cuts in public spending will be painful and, unfortunately, of necessity much will be borne by the programs’ target populations: the middle class and less favored people,” he wrote. “It seems to me only fair that the most privileged members of our society should take up a heavier share of this national burden.”
Levy said he started to write on the issue as Buffet published his much-discussed piece, “Stop Coddling the Super Rich,” in the New York Times on Aug. 14. The advertising and PR chief said he did not speak with Buffet on the subject.
“Perhaps even more surprisingly, a number of US business leaders joined his campaign; and in France, a number joined my call,” wrote Levy. “So perhaps the tide has changed, as the wailing pundits claimed; but perhaps the new cycle will not be one of decline but of clear-thinking and solidarity.”
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