So ive been hearing for weeks that Bernard Arnault - head of LVMH is opting out of paying French super Tax - (being the richest man in France, you would think he could afford it right enough…)
It has been claimed that he and many other rich names in the fashion and luxury brands such as Karl Lagerfeld himself, are thinking of moving out of the country that I now call home, in favor of Belgium and the UK, to avoid paying their fair way during a recession caused by the rich - leaving us at the bottom to pick up after them.
Wither the claims are true or not, It doesn’t really matter - There is a problem & it needs fixing regardless of these latest accusations. Lagerfeld claimed in the Sunday Times last week that he fears fashion designers will flee France - GREAT NEWS! THERE WILL BE SPACE FOR ME!!!!
Now im not asking for 1 million + euros to do my job, nor do I wish to do the exhausting, never ending and chaotic work of Lagerfeld who does way more that i could imagine. However I would be happy to take 60 Thousand euros to do one of his tasks at one of the companies he designs for. This would leave other bits of his job open for other designers who are not looking for fame and fortune but instead; stability. Im sure that taking on 3 or 4 newer talents at 60-100k each to do different bits of Lagerfelds enormous job (Fendi, Karl lagerfeld, Chanel and many other side projects) would work out much cheaper than keeping on the man himself as he works from abroad, create more employment opportunities and allow new designers the chance to enter a world which is increasingly difficult when you are new.
I have all the respect in the world for amazing talents and powers such as Lagerfeld & Arnault, but if the top 1% choose to take themselves out of a country just because they can afford to or expect the bottom 99% to subsidies them, then fine GO! We need the jobs more than you do, we are willing to work for less money too and we have new fresh ideas about fashion and business to bring, perhaps its TIME you move on and let a younger generation have its chance??
I have applied for countless jobs since I graduated 3 years ago, and im lucky to have just a handful of responses from these mega companies who have zero interest in letting up a little bit of profit in order to push forward with my generation and create something for them. What will happen when the top 1% are no longer with us? where will that leave us if we have no one prepared to take over the positions that they have guarded so tightly?
Like most of my generation i find it hard to get full time, decent PAID work in my chosen industry - Im lucky to have a job at all let alone my own apartment - but what are these so called “high employers” doing to resolve the situation? They keep upping their profits, taking on un paid interns on short term contracts and upping the workload for their current employees.
Spread the wealth a little or go to Belguim seems to be the only options - and what do these highly respected people do? they choose Belgium.
xoxo LLM
