The (French) peasants are revolting

So what do you suggest? How would taxing Californians have forestalled what happened? If anything it would have made the situation worse, because individuals would have had less resources available to manage their little bit of planet Earth. Meanwhile, a whole shitload of cash would disappear into a hole in the ground (otherwise known as climate mitigation projects).

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Whats happening in France has been brewing for many years, the tax on fuel was just the straw that broke the camels back.

The reporting I have seen so far has been pretty fair, not lumping the protesters into any political block, which is why these protests are remarkable in that they lack a leader or political ideology and at the same time why they are such a bad sign for Macron.

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I live in France. For most people the salaries are low, the education system is out of touch and dated, and there is corruption at the top (people from the grand schools watch out for one another, etc.). In addition, there is little room for upward mobility, the banking laws do not encourage risk taking, etc. While little of this applies to expats, I can see why the locals are pissed.

Macron came to power promising to reform France and pull the country into the 21st Century. He, along with Chancellor Merkel in Germany and to a less extent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, are seen as being the best hopes for liberal internationalists in a time of rising protectionism. This is hogwash.

His reputation abroad as a liberal internationalist, his loyalty in defending his violent bodyguard and his use of the French state to bully opposition leaders such as Marine Le Pen is outright thuggish. In fact, it belongs in the Vichy France of Petain in the 1940s—a regime where fellow socialists, such as former President Francois Mitterrand, thrived.

He has done absolutely nothing to cut the expensive costs that are needed to hire even low-wage employees. With France`s high taxation, its ultra-conservative banks (Macron made his fortune at one of them) that ignore and make it hard for SMEs to gain financing, and its Soviet-era cadre and non-cadre classifications that promote non-performing hierarchies, I am not optimistic at all.

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that’s surprising, since basically every time there’s a protest against the government in the Eu it inevitably gets labeled as far right (unless the protest is against a right leaning government, of course, in which case they’re brave protesters of freedom)

that’s true, and now even young students are getting involved

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I think that Macron being very friendly toward banks and being an internationalist were known facts before the election, yet he won quite easily. Was it a case of “anyone but Le Pen”, similarly to what happened in the US?

It’s not really about Californians…It’s more about the legions of poor around the world and how that whole dynamic is going to play out in my opinion.

The French have relatively high salaries, for both Europe and of course worldwide. It can’t be about the salaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAbZRBxOh3k

It looks like one of those Isis videos.

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It looks like French police arresting rioters in a school.

Not everyone. And the taxes like fuel tax impact people disproportionately

So how is taxing people going to achieve anything?

The poor have dug their own holes and need to dig themselves out of it, just like everyone else. Unless they can be convinced of the value of improving their livelihoods with sensible ecological management techniques (as opposed to shitting in their own backyard) then they’re doomed. Natural selection will take care of the rest. It won’t be pretty, but it’s not like they don’t have a choice.

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Vested Paris interests did a hatchet job on Fillon ensuring he would finish distant, they used thuggish tactics against Le Pen, etc. The reality is that Melenchon on the left and Le Pen on the right are far and away more pro-worker than Macron.

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Maybe in Paris, but the anger is from outside.

Céline, a classroom assistant for children with special needs, earns €800 (£710) a month. She cannot afford rent so lives with her four children in a relative’s house in the suburbs of Toulouse, in the south-west of France.

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I think that taxing people to fight climate change is as effective as relocating millions of people from poor countries with low co2 emissions in africa and the middle east, and placing them in countries with high co2 emissions like most civilized countries.

I mean, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to me, unless the purpose are just taxes of course, in which case it’s a good strategy.

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I mean if I was to pay Denmark like taxes, I would expect Denmark like everything. But doesn’t look like they are.

The poor dug their own holes when they are born in sub Saharan Africa or Afghanistan desert or Bangladesh swamp.

Okay then.

Especially Al Gore. :sunglasses:

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sub-Saharan Africa was rather fecund 300-400 years ago. The Africans fucked it up, and they’re still doing it. Afghanistan is a more brittle climate but it still has possibilities; again, it’s far worse than it needs to be because Afghans. Similar thing with Bangladesh; at least they’ve got water, and once upon a time they probably knew how to manage it.

You still haven’t explained how taxing the crap out of everyone is going to make any of this any better.

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It seems it was I who was doing the triggering.