We All Live With Yellow Vests

Is Paris burning?

Protests in Paris and elsewhere in France have been going on for over a month to protest President  Emmanuel Macron's economic reforms, including a higher tax on gasoline and diesel fuel meant to cut down on carbon emissions from automobiles by having people use them less.  The protesters have been wearing the yellow vests required to be kept in the cars of all French motorists because . . . well, I don't know why, but they have to have them.

Anyway, when I first heard about these protests, I couldn't understand why people in a country blessed with a sound, smart transportation policy that offers lots of mass-transit alternatives would get in a snit over taxes on fuels for their cars - cars that are fuel-efficient by necessity, because the French don't encourage the mass production of gas guzzlers like America does.  But it turns out that many French people rely more on their Renaults than their metro systems - a curious condition, given the legendary unreliability of Renaults - and they can't bear more taxes.  In fact, the French already have to deal with a high cost of living, and even though their minimum wage is higher than ours (€9.53 an hour, or US$12.10, which works out to €1,498.47 a month, or US$1,700.30), they can't get very far on that, either. 

After the center of Paris started bearing an eerie resemblance to the downtown area of Detroit - a city founded by the French - Macron backed down on the fuel taxes, canceling them and promising a €100 (US$113.09) per month increase in the minimum wage in 2019 and the cancellation of charges and taxes on overtime hours in 2019, but he refuses to raise taxes on the rich.

And Americans thought Macron was a progressive because he speaks two languages and wants to do something about climate change?  

Anyway, the French people say that's not enough, and so they keep pressing for more demands.  Because that's the difference between France and the United States.  There, the people protest in the streets and get results.  Here, we protest and get arrested for loitering.  In France, the government is afraid of the people, but in the U.S., the people are afraid of the government.

In France right now, though, the government could completely collapse, as Macron's concessions haven't satisfied anyone because he still takes a neo-liberal, pro-business approach to managing the French economy.  And at this point, a period of instability could be strong enough and severe enough to topple the French government like a thunderstorm topples an oak tree.  And there could be a Sixth Republic as a result.

I feel sorry for all of the American tourists who went to Paris for the holidays.  No, not really . . . because if you can afford to even go to Paris in the first place, why should I feel sorry for you?