Where Did Our Money Go?

Where Did Our Money Go?

France taxes a lot. It borrows a lot. It promises a lot. But where does our money really go?

For thirty years, the French have watched taxes rise, debt explode, public services deteriorate and political leaders explain to them, again and again, that one more effort is needed. One more tax. One more contribution. One more sacrifice.

But before asking citizens for more, a simple question should be asked: What have you done with the money we have already given you? Abandoned ecotax. Failed public software. Industrial projects announced and then swallowed up. Revalued construction sites. Consulting firms. Subsidies without demonstrated results. Poorly evaluated tax expenditures. Strategic plans turned into press releases. Digital programs out of control. Debt passed on to future generations.

This book does not merely denounce. It goes back through the files, distinguishes useful spending from absurd spending, separates certain amounts from fragile estimates, identifies chains of responsibility and asks a question the State often prefers to avoid: Who pays when no one is responsible? Public money is not magic. It comes from the work of French people, businesses, consumers, retirees, families and the young who will inherit the debt. Every million wasted is a hospital that waits, a school that deteriorates, a road that is not repaired, a reduction in charges that will never happen, a sovereignty that recedes.

Where Has Our Money Gone? is an investigation into thirty years of public waste, budgetary impunity and organized bankruptcy. A book for those who reject slogans, excuses and amnesia. A book to understand how money disappears. And above all, how to prevent it from disappearing again.