[Time] Paris Police Clash With Demonstrators Protesting Rising Fuel Taxes

The Euros definitely know how to have a riot - the Greeks lead the way, but France is right behind them.

 

It does seem that way, just like coal and natural gas.

Agricultural production has grown significantly since 1960 due to yield improvements, while land under cultivation has only gone up by 12%:

http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/newsroom/docs/en-solaw-facts_1.pdf

You mean obesity because there's too much food nowadays and decades of terrible nutrition advice.

The raw numbers put to lie the idea that the humanity is in trouble, rather it's that humanity has never been so well off.

 

Baguettes and bayonets.

The French will get behind anything — including your dog if you are not careful.

 

A generation of French have become hypnotized with allure of socialism and are seeing the brunt of its
foul impact. These bureaucrats that make it difficult to fire people, onerous red tape and regulations in every
industry and overly powerful trade unions forcing more and more benefits have crippled the country's ability
to invent, create and act as entrepreneurs and capitalists. Its a running joke that a frenchman says everything
is impossible because he has learned in France that nearly everything is.

Now in order to survive they must again raise taxes on all the French even though gas per gallon is
nearly $6 a gallon today with most of it going to excise taxes. Plus a VAT tax, plus income taxes.

With many productive producers choosing to leave France, there is simply not enough money to pay for
the future obligations and the vitriol against producers isn't enough as everyone now pays most of their
earnings to the government and hopes the bureaucrats in power deign to give them better products and
services. That is no way to live.

I reject this and choose Freedom and limited government otherwise this is our future.

 

LOL.

France was "hypnotised" by socialism 200 years ago. But nice story. Dont let facts get in the way of a good morality play.

 

Why are you so interested in settling for mediocrity? Things can be so much better instead of having a shill like you manipulate the uninformed.

Yields also have nothing to do with the quality of grain, the nutrient content, and whether alot of it is for use in processed food or industrialized animal feed.


West Coast fishermen are suing oil companies for climate change damages

 

What mediocrity? I don't recall earlier golden ages when everybody was well-fed with delicious organic food. I see that the world is feeding its population, larger than it's ever been, better than ever in history while requiring less and less human labor, freeing up people to go into better paying jobs. Which means many can afford to eat things other than a bowl of rice and a few pieces of vegetable and meat. I'm sure the Chinese don't miss those days.

I'd expect it to go as successful as the California cities who tried to sue the oil companies earlier this year.

 

More than half the world's food is wasted. The industrial model creates high yields that are nutritionally depleted and grown with GMO's. I don't see the need to plow down forests and land that should be off limits before the waste issue is addressed globally.

Developed countries that never had certain health issues are now trending the way of America, where everyone is on a pill for something. What are your thoughts on the following:

1. The world's resources are limited, therefore growth is limited. Mowing down the entire Amazon (and other similar places that have been off limits previously) to feed humans creates more problems than it fixes.

2. Industrially processed food depletes soil conditions and over the years food becomes less and less nutritious.

It's not about whether it's a success or not - it's about the food supply being affected. We've been seeing this for a while in terms of warning signs.

 

And yet again you prouve your stupidity.

 

Wow ! I didn’t think you could say anything dumber than your previous post...and here you are outdoing yourself.

Bravo !

At what point do you not resort to insults on a subject you know nothing about ?
How about you stick to the threads you are only good at: racism, xenophobia, bigotry and sucking up to Trump

 

I know more than Macron when it comes to this subject. I would have never implemented such a tax — leading to zero rioting.

Isn’t life amazing?

 

@Accord99

Waiting

 

70% of the country are not "alt-right frogs." I think it's telling that that right-wingers see the same events and proclaim it's a bunch of whiny socialists. I think we should resist projecting our politics where they don't fit.

It's a prohibitive tax that specifically affects rural people, the poor, and especially those who make a living from shipping, transportation, and agriculture. I wouldn't expect that wealthy Parisians (or New Yorkers) would have much sympathy for it, but it's a misread of a completely legitimate grievance.

I understand the need to disincentivize carbon emissions, but it's bad policy that puts the correction to the tragedy of the commons disportionately on the those who are already most financially vulnerable. It's tone deaf to the needs of the working class precisely because it has little regard for them, and those protesting have every right to be livid.

 

But we haven't seen that because yield improvements means that it takes a lot less land to feed a person.And wastage is just an issue you have to deal with because food doesn't last forever, especially delicate fruits and vegetables.

And when your in the developed world, customers are rich enough to only buy the best looking produce.

Which can be mitigated through fertilization, and using different breeds that grow fewer unedible parts, or with genetic modifications so that the crop extracts more useful human nutrients.

It is especially improved by richer populations who can then afford to buy protein and fats, vegetables and fruit instead of the peasant diet of grains.

The global catch data for Dungeness crabs doesn't support that. It does seem to be cyclical but also variable so it's more likely that these crab fisherman are sore at it being a bad year, or merely tools of some environmental lawyers trying to take another shot at the oil companies after losing the California and New York cases.

Plus, I wonder how well these fisherman would catch crabs without oil powered boats.

 

Someone making $200,000 in Texas pays $55k in tax including FICA.

Someone making $200,000 in NY, pays $70k in tax including FICA, state,etc

Someone making $200,000 in France, converted to Euro, pays atleast $90k in tax.

France is much better at targeting it's wealthy (hypothetical number isn't wealthy but it's not someone who would protest over the fuel increase) and cutting off loopholes the wealthy in the US use to avoid certain taxes.

This was something Macron had to do and I hope he revisits it in the future. It affects the working poor disproportionately but they also receive much better healthcare and welfare benefits from the country so perspective is needed.

 

That's because there is much less complacency in the political culture and much more of a tradition of balance between capital and labor. The rich in France would be as happy to lower income taxes and cut benefits as the rich in any other country, but there is a much stronger political will to prevent it from those that would be impacted by it -- like now.

So it's ok to add a highly regressive tax because their welfare state is already better developed? Disincentivizing carbon emissions is always going to hurt GNP, and it's fine to take it seriously, but the model shouldn't be a burden that is relegated to the lower classes. It's highly unpopular with the majority of the people, and as is being clearly illustrated, there is a much more developed culture for pushing back against that sort of thing, which is why they have a better welfare state in the first place.

There are better ways to accomplish what they want. Germany and Spain had better buy-in across society for their green initiatives, because the pain was largely seen in electricity bills - something that affected everyone but incentivized conservation. It's poor public policy, Macron majorly failed to sell it, and the French people have every right to protest.

 

I do not like them... alt right!!!!!!! oh no!!!

 

... duh.

The GNP and GDP are used by manipulative bankers as an indicator of success.

When there was an oil spill off the coast of Alaska, their GDP increased during the clean up period, not taking into account all the future issues it would create.

Growth in GDP does not make people in high income countries better off. This is the short sighted economic thinking the left rightly lambasts Trump for. What is best for the people going forward? Not just the next 2, 4 or 6 years... but over the decades? Decrease consumption in the developed world and the overall quality of life goes up for these protestors. Sustainable development is the key to their stability in the future, the rich will be fine either way.

I strongly urge you to look into the Genuine Progress Indicator instead of GDP when looking at the wellbeing of citizens.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genuine_progress_indicator