Killing Off France's Artisans

...its high priests are technocrats...

...Whereas British civil servants live in some awe of the House of Commons, their French counterparts consider the National Assembly a dubious joke...

...Other creative artisans told me they used most of their initial capital not to buy equipment and materials, but to pay the "social charges" during their first two years of activity...

...Its creative artisans are an endangered species...

...Friends in France's universities say their campuses are overrun by administrators and bossy secretaries —who are, emphatically, not there to help the teaching staff...

...Thanks partly to the spadework done by the planners of the Fourth Republic, and partly to the stimulus of the European Economic Community (EEC), France is now an industrial power...

...I was reminded of his words more than once in a series of discussions I had recently on the state of the arts and crafts in France...

...The problem stems in large measure from the fact that democratic controls over the French Administration are notoriously weak...

...But try explaining that to a French tax inspector...

...In the Toulouse region, a girl named Alice, who has her master's degree in modern languages, told me: "Before resigning myself to the teaching or administrative job that is all a French university course now prepares one for, I decided to try my hand at textile and fashion designing, which I studied during university vacations...

...The overthrow of the Fourth Republic was the political proclamation of the collapse of the easygoing, materially underdeveloped France of small manufacturers, artisans and peasants that still looked back nostalgically to the world before 1914...

...It is easy to shrug over a comment like that and say: "Yes, Communism...

...As with vat, the payments are based on official guesstimates of turnover, but three sets of bureaucrats are now lying in wait...

...Every artisan must belong to three organizations, called caisses—one for pensions, one for health insurance and one for family allowances...

...But it obliges them to devote precious hours to form-filling and haggling with tax officials, and it imposes financial strain and worry because their vat quota—which they must pay in advance—is fixed according to a theoretical turnover guessti-mated by officials and adjusted every two years...

...While socialists tend to consider all state employees (other than the Army and police) good, conservatives tend to think they are all (other than the Army and police) bad...

...I registered with the professional organizations and tax people—then the attack began...

...when asked if they would like their children to be artisans...

...In France (where the state machine employees 2.4 million people—11 per cent of the active population—and consumes half the national budget), the situation is confused because many Gaullists are firmly in agreement with the Communists in defense of the principle of a "strong" administration...

...As a final shot, the bureaucracy pursued her for weeks, demanding that she pay a sort of payroll tax on her employees although she had already informed it that she never had any...

...France's artisans, on the other hand, seem likely to continue declining in numbers and quality, unless some enlightened minister secures a policy switch in their favor...

...in fact, much—perhaps most—of it is swallowed up in inflated administrative costs...

...Parasite Problem Another artisan told me: "The bureaucracy will be happy only when the last of us are manning assembly lines...

...Every artist needs periodically to spend weeks or months experimenting with ideas and techniques...

...Many are appalled by the mentality of the officials they have to deal with...

...One man of about 50, whose lovingly handmade furniture attracts buyers from hundreds of miles away, said he and his wife had dissuaded their two sons from following in his footsteps...

...I often have a nightmare vision of a future world in which there are billions of people, all numbered and registered, with not a gleam of genius anywhere, not an original mind on the whole packed globe...

...and, when in power, conservatives are apt to fire genuinely needed welfare workers, nurses and teachers along with parasites...

...They've got secure, respectable jobs—in the Administration...

...Even more burdensome than vat are the "social charges" an artisan has to pay various official and semi-official bodies every three months, from the moment he starts work, regardless of whether he is earning anything...

...The bureaucrats regard them with horror, knowing that no pigeonholes can be found for them...

...Some of the demands came twice from the same organization, once from Paris and again from a regional office...

...Heads of departments speak, increasingly, like bureaucrats...

...Since manufacturers have to pay the tax, too, technically it does not discriminate against artisans...

...To the fonctionnaire there is something suspect, unnatural, about any self-employed person, and the artist or artisan, being difficult to classify and control, is a social undesirable...

...Interestingly, there is news that in one or two Eastern European countries, notably Hungary, the authorities are waking up to the fact that their artisans are dying off...

...Time was when the pride of France was its creative artisans and artists...

...I am, after all, a. fonctionnaire: I obey the instructions of the Ministry," the director of an Ecole nor-male told me one day...

...A young potter who asked a tax official to explain a form he had to fill in was told to hire an accountant...

...As inventive Pyreneean artisans told me: "We don't know what our turnover will be, or for that matter what we'll be making, in six or 10 months' time...

...She showed me her files to confirm her story, and I saw enough of her work to realize that her failure was not due to lack of talent...

...Every parasite must have a victim, however, and since artisans have no economic, political or social clout, they are easy prey...

...Forms to fill in, demands for personal data, demands for money—the equivalent of $2,000 before I'd earned a cent—from the vat office, the various caisses and so on...

...Scores of French artisans exhibited ceramics, leather goods, jewelry, furniture, and toys at a glittering expo in Paris a few weeks ago, but many of the participants felt that the administrative climate was as chilly as the economy...

...He smiled sadly...

...And Parkinson's Law is one of the basic laws of France...

...Feelings on the subject often run high...

...Its religion is technology...

...Where, then, were they working...

...This is, perhaps, going too far...

...The swing toward conservatism in Britain and some other Western European countries in recent years has been, in part, a reaction against the growth of what is generally considered bureaucracy...

...Alice was soon obliged to take a teaching post in order to pay for the privilege of practicing her art...

...With General Charles de Gaulle, big business and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration took over...

...One can only hope that their fate will attract attention in other Western countries and help Italian, Spanish and other artists and craftsmen build up defenses against their local bureaucracies...

...Inevitably, this grotesque bureaucratic proliferation wastes resources and makes social services a heavier economic burden in France than they are in countries like Britain, where health and welfare services are financed largely from general taxation and do not have to maintain parallel fund-gathering organizations...

...Its engines and cabin were, in fact, British, but there was something peculiarly appropriate about that: Was not de Gaulle jetted to fame by the BBC...

...So what's new...

...Too many older artisans, caught on the financial-administrative treadmill, settle for routine repetitive work that taxmen can assess easily...

...It was obvious that the fonc-tionnaires sending them considered artisans dirt...

...The French rate, the highest in the EEC, is 33 per cent on "luxury" goods and 17.6 per cent on other articles...

...vat is a value-added tax (TVA in French) on goods and services that is now imposed in all states of the Community...

...The twin ideals of our time, organization and quantity, will have won for ever...

...They explain that they are being trounced by two deadly bureaucratic weapons: vat and "social charges...

...Moreover, President Giscard d'Estaing and his ministers are unlikely to trim the bureaucracy in a period of rising unemployment...

...But times change...

...For de Gaulle, the symbol of his Fifth Republic was the sleek Caravelle, the first jet airliner built in France...

...When a girl who works in silk in the south of France mistakenly listed her (modest) capital equipment on the same tax form as her stocks, an angry inspector threatened to "punish" her by imposing vat payments "that will ruin you...

...Artisans' wives hoot and cry "Jamais...

...Artisans say that, except for those who are already well up the ladder, practicing a craft in France today is a frustrating struggle against an Administration that views with mistrust anyone who aspires to creativity and independence...

...Artisans are not, of course, the only victims...

...Two-thirds of young artisans abandon within two years...

...Each has its own network of offices and bureaucrats, and there are several caisses within a category, all serving identical functions...

...But Priestley was writing about Western society...

...In theory, the money goes to various welfare and pension funds...

...Fifteen to twenty years ago it was still fashionable in France to sneer at American mass production and extol the superior virtues of a society in which, supposedly, craftsmanship and originality were highly regarded...

...The most disgusting thing, though, was the inquisitorial, hostile tone of the demands and letters...

...After a year she canceled her registration as an artisan (and had to pay a cancellation fee...

...Like that, they'll be on the winning side...

...The wise teacher treats them with respect...

...I doubt if, even in the Parisian bureaucracy, there are technocrats deliberately plotting to drive all artisans into factory or office jobs...

...If it is necessary to create parasitical organizations in order to provide posts for unproductive minor officials, in order to provide promotion for middle-grade officials, in order to provide private empires for senior officials, that will be done...

...Measures are reportedly being taken to keep alive those who fill gaps in the state-controlled economy, and especially those whose products appeal to tourists and export markets...