> Even if the French government were to expropriate the entirety of private wealth, it wouldn't even be enough to cover 10 years of spending

America's $6.75tn budget [1] would blow through our $140tn private wealth in 21 years. Even Norways $0.11tn budget [2] blows through its $1.6tn of private wealth in 14 years.

Perhaps the better metric is deficit as a fraction of private wealth? If that looks unsustainable, the problem is in publicly-held assets and services.

[1] https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_budget_of_Norway

French private wealth has increased $2,300 billion since 2020 according to that page.

In the last 5 years French public debt has grown $750b [1]

Had that growth in wealth been taxed at the rate income was taxed (45%), that would have seen France's debt decrease - even with the covid mess.

[1] https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicator/france/national-govern...