Money is more taboo than sex in France

Euro banknotes and coins

In France - Money is taboo. In recent weeks, French politicians have lifted the lid on their assets- and in the process, they’ve revealed a bit about French attitudes about wealth. The socialist presidential candidate Segolene Royale forcibly denied being rich as if it were a swear-word. Instead, she said she was just well off. On the right, presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy has called an end to France’s traditional “down with the rich” culture. Radio France International’s Henry Samuel explored the touchy subject with Janine Mossuz-Lavau, a political scientist who has written a book called “L’argent et nous”, money and us. She says money remains one of the most sensitive subjects in France- even more so than sex- something she’s also researched.

“I asked some people I had interviewed for the research about sexuality. The first man I remember who I had interviewed for the money, during the research about sexuality he had told me all his love stories, sexual stories, with all the details and so on. And when I asked him to speak about money, he was very reticent and he told me, 'but you ask questions nobody would dare to ask.' and for his sexuality there had been no problem.”

So that's the view of the specialist, but I went into the streets of Paris to find out just how sensitive this topic is.

In France, money is taboo

“If I asked you how much you earned, would you tell me? No, I wouldn't because it's very personal. I don't think it's of your business. It's a very French attitude I must confess. You can ask almost all the people around and they wouldn't tell you. What do you think is the reason behind it? It's not a kind of pride to earn money in France. The pride is on culture, what you know, your knowledge and money is not such a big thing.”

“How much do you earn? Eh, (laughs), something like 100,000 euros per annum. How did you feel about telling me? To me that's OK, because nobody will recognise my voice on RFI, so that's fine with me.”

According to Janine Mossuz-Lavau, the French taboo with money is deeply linked to its history, religion and politics.

“The first reason is that we are coming from rural, peasant society and this culture money was at home. It was hidden, so we don't have to speak about it because somebody could come and take it. The second reason is the Catholic religion which has been very important for centuries and centuries. The Catholic religion was something done around poor people so, all that is money, riches was not very well seen. The third reason is the influence of Marxism. Marxism if you summarise quickly is 'profit is not good'. So all that makes that it's relatively taboo in France but it does not prevent people from wanting to earn money and to have money. So you have cross pressure about this question.”

How much do you earn?

So what do the politicians think of the subject. I asked Jean-Louis Bianco, who is Segolene Royal's spokesman.

“I would like us in France to be like you are in Great Britain or generally speaking in the Anglo-Saxon world you know. I think we need in a modern democracy to be transparent. Everybody has to say how much he wins and rich people should be proud that they pay taxes, that means that they bring something to the country. So I hope we go in that direction, being transparent and being proud of paying taxes when you are rich.”

Jean-Louis Bianco in the National Assembly, who hopes his candidate, whatever her approach to wealth, will hit the jackpot in presidential elections in April.