French Government Backs Down on “Climate Change” Fuel Taxes

President Emmanuel Macron. By Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Link. Image modified.

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

h/t Dr. Willie Soon – President Macron’s government has retreated from imposing climate change fuel taxes, caved in to pressure from the yellow jacket movement. But the protestors are already suggesting that the government backdown might not be enough.

French PM announces suspension of fuel tax hikes after ‘Yellow Vest’ protests

Date created : 04/12/2018 – 12:31
Latest update : 04/12/2018 – 16:49

French Prime Minister Ɖdouard Philippe on Tuesday announced a suspension of the controversial fuel tax increases planned for January 1 in a move aimed at bringing an end to weeks of violent “Yellow Vest” protests against the tax.

Philippe announced a suspension of planned increases in three taxes on fuel for a six-month period in response to nationwide protests against high pump prices and rising living costs.

ā€œThis anger, youā€™d have to be deaf or blind not to see it or hear it,ā€ Philippe said in his address.

ā€œThe French who have donned these yellow vests want taxes to fall and work to pay. Thatā€™s also what we want. If I didnā€™t manage to explain this well, if the ruling majority didnā€™t manage to convince the French, then something must change.ā€

The backpedaling by President Emmanuel Macron’s government appeared designed to calm the nation, coming three days after the worst unrest on the streets of Paris in decades.

No tax is worth putting the nation’s unity in danger,” Philippe said, just three weeks after insisting that the government wouldn’t change course in its determination to wean French consumers off polluting fossil fuels.

More protests were expected this weekend in Paris.

It’s a first step, but we will not settle for a crumb,” said Benjamin Cauchy, a protest leader.

Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20181204-live-french-prime-minister-announces-suspension-fuel-tax-hikes

Something to remember next time President Macron attacks President Trump for his lack of climate action.

President Macron hoped to lead the world into a new low carbon age, but it turns out he can’t even lead his own country.

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December 4, 2018 12:38 pm

This could be very interesting.

Phillipe gives the French public a stay of execution on taxes, something brought about by protesting and violence.

So what happens in six months time when he tries to reinstate them after the success the protesters have had already?

Except, of course, these are politicians. Giving them six months to plot a strategy is six months too long.

Tom Halla
Reply to  HotScot
December 4, 2018 12:52 pm

It is interesting it was termed a delay rather than a total backdown. I do wonder what the protesters will do in response.
The tactically reasonable stand for the protesters is to demand a total stop on all so-called “carbon taxes”.

William Astley
Reply to  Tom Halla
December 4, 2018 1:49 pm

The Yellow vest movement want a cancellation of the idiotic Carbon tax in disguise.

The French people do not trust their government.

As everyone is aware China and India are not introducing a Carbon tax.

Why does France need to introduce a carbon tax?

Macron introduced a carbon tax as he is more interested in being ā€˜Politically Correctā€™ than looking out for the French people.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46437904

How has the news been received?

The first question is whether the concession will be enough to satisfy the protesters.
Some have vowed to keep up a blockade at an oil depot in Lorient in the north-west of the country, and there have been calls for further demonstrations on Saturday.

Yellow vest spokesman Benjamin Cauchy said the movement wanted a cancellation – not a postponement – of the taxes.

“The measures announced today do not satisfy us at all, for the simple reason they don’t go far enough,” he told reporter Chris Bockman in Toulouse.

“The French people want a complete political transformation. They want to change the way things have been for the last 30 years.

“We’re sick and tired of taxes being raised and the quality of public services going down. There are more and more people out there who can’t make ends meet each month, more and more people are sleeping rough and yet we continue to raise taxes.

“Where is the money going? Where is it being used?”

P.S. As almost everyone is aware there has been 20 years of no warming which along with a dozen other observations disproves CAGW.

proxima
Reply to  William Astley
December 4, 2018 2:32 pm

W.Ashley said:”The French people do not trust their government.”
The french do not trust any government by principle, at any point in time, and even if they elected said government. Americans have lots of guns and the french have a lot of bad attitude toward authority.

W.A said: “Macron introduced a carbon tax as he is more interested in being ā€˜Politically Correctā€™ than looking out for the French people.”
I agree. Macron is a smart guy but he thought he could use the environmental religion to gain an easy international stature and the support of very vocal minorities. Well, it was a bad call and he is starting to pay for it

Alan Tomalty
Reply to  William Astley
December 4, 2018 8:26 pm

A carbon tax is a hidden stealthy tax rise on fuel. Trudeau knew he couldnt get away with an increase on taxes on fuel in Canada because the taxes on fuel already are an equivalent $170 per ton on CO2. Instead he is going ahead with a carbon tax of $20/ per ton which will increase $10/ton for the next 4 years to a total of $50/ton. Canada is too gutless to protest.

Joel Snider
Reply to  HotScot
December 4, 2018 1:17 pm

I’m still sort of holding out for an ‘off with his head’ solution. But then I live in Oregon, and my charity towards greenie types on any level has significantly withered.

Walter Sobchak
Reply to  HotScot
December 4, 2018 7:42 pm

“So what happens in six months time when he tries to reinstate them after the success the protesters have had already?”

Nothing. The six months is just face saving. He has been beat, and he knows it.

ironargonaut
Reply to  Walter Sobchak
December 5, 2018 7:28 am

Disagree, by that time they will have made examples of the leaders of the protests for “unrelated” “violations” of law. The rest will get the hint.

Rod Evans
December 4, 2018 12:47 pm

I wonder if Macron is going to the Climate conference in Poland to tell them how to impose effective green taxes?

Bruce Cobb
December 4, 2018 12:48 pm

Uh-ohs, this will not go over well in Katowice.

John Endicott
December 4, 2018 12:48 pm

They didn’t “back down”, they issued a “suspension of planned increases in three taxes on fuel for a six-month period”, it’s a temporary stay in order to try to calm the masses. Six months from now they’ll be back at it again (if not sooner in another form) hoping the masses won’t be paying as much attention after a six month lull.

John Endicott
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 5, 2018 5:10 am

I agree that the French people won’t, doesn’t stop the delusional greenies in government from thinking they can fool them, after all they’ve been managing to do it for decades.

ironargonaut
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 5, 2018 7:31 am

They will just hide it better. Like in the US where it is illegal for employers to put on pay stubs how much additional taxes the employer had to pay. Etc. Etc.

a_scientist
Reply to  John Endicott
December 4, 2018 3:15 pm

In six months the weather will be warmer, and mass protests will be easier and bigger.

Dave Fair
Reply to  a_scientist
December 4, 2018 6:11 pm

Sunshine protesters and summer rioters.

MarkW
Reply to  Dave Fair
December 5, 2018 9:37 am

I get crankier when it gets hot.

Javert Chip
December 4, 2018 12:55 pm

My understanding from reading a more comprehensive statement from the French PM is the taxes have not been withdrawn, but only delayed 6 months (until after the European parliament elections…). We’ll see what happens in 6 months.

Kabend
Reply to  Javert Chip
December 4, 2018 9:47 pm

Past taxes are still in place (the ones which caused the riots in the first place). New taxes planned for early next year are paused for 6 months. Needless to say that gilets jaunes are not satisfied.

Flight Level
December 4, 2018 1:02 pm

I’ve actually met with “the yellow jackets” and we swapped our reflective vests. At that time no one, incisive myself, taught the movement had any chance. However they persisted and achieved a sizable breakthrough.

Is it s sign of a changing tide ?

Tom Abbott
December 4, 2018 1:03 pm

Macron chose the only reasonable approach.

People don’t like it when a large percentage of their take home pay is taken from them by politicians in the form of unnecessary taxes, like a carbon tax.

Raising energy taxes takes money right out of the pockets of people, and the poorest segment of the population is hit the hardest. COP24 ought to devote a lot of time to this subject of the populace resisting energy taxes because it will figure prominently in the delegates’ future. I imagine just about every population (those that are free to do so) is going to resist having their energy costs increased arbitrarily by delusional leftwing politicians.

John F. Hultquist
December 4, 2018 1:07 pm

Destruction and death — for a non-problem.
Title: How a nation destroys its wealth.

Except the French leader doesn’t believe in nations.

D Anderson
December 4, 2018 1:09 pm

Typical progressive “compromise” – We’ll still be screwing you like we planned but we’ll give you a few more months to get used to the idea.

Bruce Cobb
December 4, 2018 1:10 pm

What we have here is a failure to communicate. Macron hasn’t properly educated the peasants on the importance of eating cake.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 4, 2018 1:24 pm

That is exactly what PM Philippe said, Bruce: “If I didnā€™t manage to explain this well, if the ruling majority didnā€™t manage to convince the French, then something must change.”

Or, for those that believe the 97% meme: “We will lie better in the future.”

David Stone
Reply to  Bruce Cobb
December 5, 2018 3:37 pm

That was good Bruce, brief but good, damned good!

Duane
December 4, 2018 1:14 pm

The violent nature of some of the protests is not a good model for citizen participation. Mobs can easily get out of hand (remember all the violent actions, car burnings and such in the outskirts of Paris a few years ago?). But the violence reaction did manage to convince the French government to reconsider. Far better to go the route of non-violent civil disobedience. It gets the same message across, but maybe takes a little more time.

Psion
Reply to  Duane
December 4, 2018 1:19 pm

Duane, the idealist in me wants to agree with you, but that assumes all involved are open to reasonable dissent. I doubt the French government would have back-peddled as much as they did had these demonstrations been a good model for citizen participation. It’s the threat of chaos and rebellion — the shadow of the guillotine — reminding the leadership to be reasonable.

Graemethecat
Reply to  Duane
December 4, 2018 2:13 pm

I disagree. Without the violence, absolutely nothing would have changed in France, alas.

A government should be in fear of the people, not vice versa.

nw sage
Reply to  Graemethecat
December 4, 2018 6:53 pm

Some call it Nationalism – others call it Patriotism!
just sayin’

Dave Fair
Reply to  nw sage
December 4, 2018 7:39 pm

All governments aggrandize power until internal or external events cause their collapse. This occurs over decades or centuries, depending on circumstances.

Economic laws will eventually trip up overreaching politicians and bureaucrats.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Duane
December 4, 2018 6:40 pm

” Mobs can easily get out of hand”

Yes, they can. Even otherwise normal people can get caught up in the mob emotion and will do things they wouldn’t otherwise do because they get carried away. I’ve seen it happen myself.

Violent mobs should be discouraged at every opportunity. Society must send the message that violent mobs are unacceptable. The Radical Left does not send this message.

Walter Sobchak
Reply to  Duane
December 4, 2018 7:33 pm

You need to spend some time reading French history, Duane. This was absolutely par for the course.

The Cob
Reply to  Duane
December 5, 2018 6:30 am

I can’t stand reading these bitch arse comments. You’re just a sheep, and a product of the feminisation of our societies. Maybe if we had a few more of these Frenchmen located around our withering leftist sheeple societies we might give pause to our govts that are continuously stealing from us by using hoaxes like CAGW.

Reply to  Duane
December 5, 2018 9:22 am

Far better to go the route of non-violent civil disobedience.

Might work in many situations, but wouldn’t have done the job for the US in gaining independence from the British or rejoining itself after the South succeeded from the Union. Point being, violence is sometimes necessary.

Joel Snider
Reply to  beng135
December 5, 2018 10:34 am

Talk is over-rated as a means of solving disputes.

KaliforniaKook
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 5, 2018 12:05 pm

I have to agree.

Joel Snider
December 4, 2018 1:15 pm

The amazing thing about AGW in general, is that it’s not just a completely manufactured non-issue, but it’s the ONLY issue proponents seem to care about – and not just ABOVE all others, but to the detriment of all others – economy, defense, heat and energy, public safety, food production – it simply doesn’t matter – in fact, AGW demands we DESTROY all that – Western civilization be damned.

Not much middle ground there.

Joel Snider
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 4, 2018 2:06 pm

Honestly – the best approach is to just forget all about it and don’t worry about it anymore.

Paul Penrose
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 4, 2018 2:17 pm

Except society is not a simple garden and people are not mindless plants. You’d have to be a simpleton to accept such an analogy. I’d be insulted if someone tried that one on me.

Russ R.
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 4, 2018 4:02 pm

Capitalism is the garden, and socialism is the weed patch with 24/7 propaganda convincing you that weeds are better for you than vegetables.
How many quality products come from a socialist society? They only thing they do well is steal ideas or reverse engineer products from the free market. They can produce it at lower cost, because their workers can barely afford housing and food. And if you want a car, you get put on a waiting list, unless you are a “party member” with exceptional boot licking skills.

Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 5, 2018 2:16 am

Who decides what’s a weed?

michael hart
Reply to  Eric Worrall
December 5, 2018 9:01 am

That’s a nice analogy.

Russ R.
Reply to  HotScot
December 5, 2018 9:02 am

In a free market the consumers decide what is a weed and what is a product worth trading the results of their labor.
In a socialist society Big Brother will decide what is a weed, and which plants are fertilized, which are not, and which are ripped out by the roots, and the ground that they grew in, scorched.

justadumbengineer
Reply to  Joel Snider
December 4, 2018 1:35 pm

destroy ourselves to save ourselves!

December 4, 2018 1:29 pm

I doubt that this “Back down will not get a mention in Poland. They want a trip to the Uplands, all sweet music. Nasty facts like the people not agreeing will not go down too well.

MJE

PatB
December 4, 2018 1:32 pm

The biggest enemy of a successful civilization has always been the success of that civilization. Inevitably, some pampered folks will come up with ideas (aka climate change – the replacement for christianity) that will in the end destroy whatever their forefathers/mothers have build in sweat and tears. At least the protests in France show that the people have enough of that political nonsense. Macron is walking way out of his shoes.

Jones
December 4, 2018 1:49 pm

Nothing more than a tactical manoeuvre while they work out how to screw the poles from a different direction.

I’ll also lay money that they’ll round up all the ring-leaders of the movement before sticking the knife in again.

Watch that space.

Jones
Reply to  Jones
December 4, 2018 2:04 pm

Typo.

That should read “proles”.

noaaprogrammer
Reply to  Jones
December 4, 2018 5:50 pm

Jones: “…theyā€™ll round up all the ring-leaders of the movement before sticking the knife in again.”

The Yellow Jackets are pretty much a ground swell of both ends of the political spectrum — not a rent-a-mob paid for by George Soros as sometimes happens here in the U.S.

Reply to  Jones
December 5, 2018 2:23 am

Apparently there was an attempt made to organise the protests. It failed because there were no leaders. Protesters came from every political and social background and, by and large, don’t agree on anything other than their collective contempt for the fuel tax.

markl
December 4, 2018 1:52 pm

The UN is now worried that France’s ‘contribution’ and the Climate Reparations Fund is even more in jeopardy. If this snowballs and spreads to other countries there won’t be any wealth to redistribute.

Graemethecat
Reply to  markl
December 4, 2018 2:15 pm

With the loss of the US financial contribution the whole UN climate project is doomed already. This is just the cherry on the top.

John Endicott
Reply to  Graemethecat
December 5, 2018 7:47 am

Other than the $1 billion the US forked over under Obama, has any other country contributed (actually forking over the money, not what they “promised” to contribute) anything to the fund? and if so, how much (bet it’s next to nothing if not nothing).

Dave Fair
Reply to  John Endicott
December 5, 2018 9:46 am

The big scam (that even the green NGOs saw through) is to reclassify other, existing Third World aid as Green Climate Fund expenditures.

J Mac
December 4, 2018 2:18 pm

A carbon tax delay is not a carbon tax defeat. Stand your ground Yellow Jackets!
Perhaps your next march should be led by a team towing a symbolic guillotine on a wooden cart through the Arch of Triumph, headed towards Macron’s office, with a suitable escort of pitch fork and torch bearers?

GoatGuy
December 4, 2018 2:26 pm

In a nutshell, this is a textbook grade account of the difference between punitive and operations funding taxation, and the public’s view of them.

Operations funding taxation is simple. Fuel taxes to maintain and improve roads, bridges, tunnels and overpasses, because fuel-fired vehicles travel upon them, and benefit from the self-same reliability and capacity upkeep. Operations funding taxation to pay for highway patrol, city-and-town avenues. Taxation that becomes direct, tangible benefit to the taxed.

Punitive or ā€œsinā€ taxes aim to thwart the public’s propensity to overconsume or overuse a resource. In times of famine, reverse taxation by way of rationing stamps (or cards). Punitive taxes of a product that the public becomes dependent upon, without any known benefit, and indeed a lot of societal expense to loss of health: cigarette and tobacco taxation. At least the public can also see the tangible return tho’ from such turn-around-is-fair taxation. National, local, regional hospitals are directly, and their tobacco addiction cessation programs are also earmarked for special funding. Let those addicted to the Indian Weed pay for the health issues caused therein. The public is mostly OK with that.

But punitive-on-a-theory taxation just rankles the public to no end. We’re going to tax you for the carbon your fuel produces on burning, because we really, really, really want to make fuel so expensive that you will self-govern your consumption to only the most necessary and least wasteful purposes.

This inevitably causes the younger, time-on-their-hands and things-to-do-to-balk-at-regulation youth to don yellow jackets, and storm the Arc du Triomphe. Its an old reaction. Entirely predictable. Very French.

Other cultures react to theory-sin taxation in less vainglorious ways: the British youth might likewise riot a bit, but the British MPs wouldn’t be so impolitic so as to egregiously impose taxes at Day One. The Germans would actually be for it, and would take it mostly in stride: theirs is a vibrant economy, with near-nil unemployment. The youth, middle-aged and near-retiring will all Do The German Thing, and decrease their unnecessary fuel consumption. The Scandinavians are even more inclined to go along for the taxation show.

Further clement you go (i.e. “South”), and the less the public is willing to have The Gub’mint imposing theoretical-sin taxes, of near any size. The Spanish would verily erupt with cathartic vigor, were its government to impose Some Crackpot Theory of Future Harm taxation, today, to raise a whole lot of money that has no particular earmark for do-good-in-return-for-society-today proposed spending.

So, color me purple and call me an eggplant: I am really not surprised in the least.

Thus it goes.
GoatGuy

John Tillman
Reply to  GoatGuy
December 4, 2018 2:31 pm

Have to wonder how many of the most violent “protestors” are regime
agents provocateurs.

WXcycles
Reply to  John Tillman
December 4, 2018 9:39 pm

Sounds like a convenient conspiracy theory.

John Tillman
December 4, 2018 2:27 pm

No surprise that peaceful ruralites and exurbanites, ie tbose who drive the most rather than relying on unsafe public transport, led in the early going, before urban anarchist iconoclast vandals jumped on the protest bandwagon.

French and other European ruling elites now know that the long-suffering middle and working classes won’t endure their globalist reign of terror in silence forever.

Sara
December 4, 2018 2:36 pm

I wonder if Macron suddenly realized that he’s not as popular or as insulated as he thought he was.

I’m kind of on the sidelines here, because no such protests have been going on in my immediate area, but it seems to me that this whole AGWer business is starting to fray at the edges. I hope so.

Craig from Oz
December 4, 2018 3:43 pm

What I find bemusing is that back when North Africa was filled with angry protesters it was named the ‘Arab Spring’ and there was much rejoicing about people power and true democracy within the media.

Now we have France filled with angry protesters and the media is pretending it isn’t really happening and not worthy of note.

Probably something to do with Russian Bots.

EternalOptimist
December 4, 2018 3:53 pm

But how can this have happened ?
David Attenborough just said in Poland that the worlds people were calling for carbon taxes and the ex PM of Australia went so far as to claim that ordinary people were ‘screaming’ for a carbon tax

Reply to  EternalOptimist
December 4, 2018 4:09 pm

Screaming ‘about’ a carbon tax.
He is a daft galoot!

Auto

Reply to  EternalOptimist
December 5, 2018 8:36 am

Well, never mind,
Sir David Attenborough claims (Evening Standard ,2 days ago)’the collapse of civilisation is on the horizon’ due to climate change .Not sure that this is what he meant.! Ho ho,Humm

MarkW
December 4, 2018 4:32 pm

The plans are merely “suspended”, not canceled. As soon as the heat dies down, the taxes will be resurected.

John Endicott
Reply to  MarkW
December 5, 2018 5:15 am

And when they do resurrect them taxes, they best hope the French people don’t decide to resurrect madam guillotine. just saying.

Lance of BC
December 4, 2018 4:58 pm
Patrick MJD
Reply to  Lance of BC
December 4, 2018 6:01 pm

Belgium, albeit one of the smallest countries in the EU, has the largest lit road network than any other country in the EU, so I would not be surprised by this.

Lance of BC
December 4, 2018 5:20 pm

French police remove helmets as gesture of peace to protesters,

https://www.rt.com/news/445499-france-police-helmets-solidarity-protesters/

SAMURAI
December 4, 2018 5:52 pm

So, taxpayers donā€™t want Leftist governments to steal $122 trillion (recent UN estimate) from them to fix the fictitious CAGW Hoax…. Imagine that….

I guess taxpayers donā€™t believe the Leftistsā€™ lies that stealing $122 trillion from the private sector will stimulate the world economy and create more jobs than will be destroyed…

Taxpayers also donā€™t want to try and scratch out a feeble existence trying to live off an economy powered by a terribly expensive, intermittent,unreliable and thin gruel of wind and solar power… Imagine that….

The CAGW scam is imploding. The US is out, France canā€™t implement CAGW taxes, Brazil is looking to pull out, Australian, Canadian, Korean and Italian taxpayers are are becoming increasing skeptical, and China and India donā€™t have to contribute any CAGW taxes until 2030..

Iā€™m sure the taxpayers in the remaining industrialized countries (U.K., Germany, Japan and Spain) will be happy to bear this $122 trillion, because the more money they waste, the more jobs will be created and the stronger their economies will become… Yeah, right..

Iā€™m becoming increasingly convinced that when (not if) the idiotic CAGW hoax is finally exposed as the biggest and most expensive scam in human history, the blowback against Leftistism will be epic and voters will become more open to the Conservative philosophies of: limited government, fiscal responsibility and free-market Capitalism.

Weā€™re getting so close to finally witnessing the demise of the CAGW hoax.

Roger Knights
Reply to  SAMURAI
December 5, 2018 4:19 am

“Iā€™m becoming increasingly convinced that when (not if) the idiotic CAGW hoax is finally exposed as the biggest and most expensive scam in human history, the blowback against Leftism will be epic”

That’s what I’ve been consoling myself with for years. But it’ll need a big and prolonged temperature drop to put CAGW six feet under.

John Endicott
Reply to  SAMURAI
December 5, 2018 5:20 am

The problem with that is that there are too many conservative in name only politicians who, once they get in power, expand government also as much as their lefty counterparts. The people are screwed either way, the only question is just which politicians/political party is going to screw them the least.

Ben of Houston
December 4, 2018 5:52 pm

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing the song of angry men.
It’s the music of a people who will not be slaves again

SAMURAI
Reply to  Ben of Houston
December 4, 2018 6:59 pm

Yes, Leftist tyrants are Les Miserables…

[Least Miserables? The mods would think “Most Miserables” .mod]

SAMURAI
Reply to  SAMURAI
December 4, 2018 8:43 pm

Moderator-san

“Les Miserables” is the play/movie Ben’s quoted song lyrics are from.

[A few Les Miserables, a few Mor Miserables? What is the standard deviation of the Average Miserable sang? .mod]

Pft
December 4, 2018 6:26 pm

Macron and France unlike the US canā€™t print money. Under the Eurozone rule which controls the Euro fiscal deficits must be kept under 3% of GDP or they may be subject to sanctions. Money is controlle by the ECB We have averaged 5% of GDP fiscal deficits over the last 10 years.

The fuel tax is just the tip of the iceberg though. Neoliberal policies have resulted in huge tax breaks to the rich, privatization giveaways, cuts backs in health care and train infrastructure and services. Also, despite concerns of CO2 to justify the tax they are reducing cheap nuclear power and replacing it with more expensive energy

Furthermore since the 2009 financial crisis GDP growth has been a meager 1% growth over the last decade. Per capita GDP has increased only 0.3% since pre recession levels. In the early years of the recovery US fiscal deficits averaged over 7% of GDP allowing for a recovery in GDP growth in recent years that France did not realize due to enforced austerity measures

And unemployment has fallen to a 10 year low of 9%.

Maybe they should let BLS calculate this stuff for them

Dave Fair
Reply to  Pft
December 4, 2018 6:50 pm

In the U.S., politicians and bureaucrats reduce unemployment by not counting people who have given up looking for a job because there aren’t any. How do French politicians and bureaucrats play with numbers to understate job losses?

Kyle in Upstate NY
Reply to  Pft
December 8, 2018 2:11 am

The fiscal deficits under Obama likely had next to nothing to do with the recent U.S. economic recovery, but rather Trump’s rolling back the Obama regulatory boot from the throat of the American economy, thus freeing up the U.S. energy sector and economy, reducing the corporate tax rate to a reasonable level and also cutting taxes overall, and just a more general sense of optimism among many in the business community given how regulation-obsessed the Obama administration was. France’s economy likely did not stagnate due to austerity but rather due to its being so overly taxed and regulated, which will hamstring any economy.

jim heath
December 4, 2018 6:56 pm

I’ll have to learn to knit so I can go over and watch the heads drop in the basket.

Robert of Texas
December 4, 2018 7:37 pm

Macron will relabel the taxes as the “Carbon Burden Fair Share Law”… The book “Atlas Shrugged” seems so relevant about now.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Robert of Texas
December 4, 2018 7:52 pm

Its amazing what some politicians will do to chase their “legacy.”

At least President Trump concentrates on clear and present problems/dangers, eschewing feel-good platitudes for concrete and effective actions. Past obfuscation and dithering made national economics and international relations much worse, requiring more heroic efforts to solve.

Doug
December 4, 2018 9:51 pm

A country run by urban elites, unaware of the changes in small rural towns. Sounds familiar.

All across France small shops and businesses have closed up, replaced by big box stores on the edge of the larger towns. A car is now a necessity for rural France. Still not needed in Paris, and I guess the Parisians are too busy basking in the glory of their accord to go out and see it in person.

December 4, 2018 10:17 pm

If Macron wanted to do a test run in the next 6 months, could he announce that the fuel tax would only apply to consumers of a certain religion, like Muslim?

Amber
December 4, 2018 10:37 pm

Macron is like so many arrogant preachy liberals who let their ego’s and desire to virtue signal replace common sense policies . The jig is up . People don’t have virtual bills to pay and humans are not setting the earths temperature ….ever .
Macron is toast … carbon free of course .

Flight Level
December 5, 2018 1:15 am

Recently a crew hauler showed up in a full featured luxurious German “tax efficient” 160 kā‚¬ hybrid. He stated that the image it displays allows for a full schedule occupation of the vehicle at rates that only image obsessed companies and political leaders can afford.
Consequence, the initial price tag is resorbed in less than a year while generating profits and driver salaries.
Compare that to the reality of an ordinary Paris cab operation and figure out who pays the difference.

Chris Morrison
December 5, 2018 2:20 am

Sure most of the population go along with the fake science, youth brainwashing and rampant left wing political agitation surrounding climate change. But deep down they know a fake hockey stick when they see it, they know that many eminent scientists dare not question the laughably named “settled science” and they know the virtue signalling Clime Syndicate is living high on the hog wherever you look.

So ask them to pay thousands of dollars for a gallon of gasoline – sorry make that five euro cents on a litre and you get an insight into how the giant Ponzi scheme is going to end.

Macron is turning out to be the canary in the coal mine. All he seems to care about is polishing his so-called liberal credentials on the world stage. It doesn’t impress Sonia 24, a childminder. Quoted in today’s Times newspaper she said: “He’s going on about 2035 but we need something now. You wonder if he has any idea what we are talking about. We can’t afford to do the shopping and he’s saying he will give us 100 euros towards the cost of replacing our windows. It’s completely idiotic”.

hunter
December 5, 2018 4:10 am

Macron Antoinette should not worry about doing what the people want.
After all, he has declared an end to nationalism and is instead focused on saving the world for the climatocracy.
So why should Macron Antoinette care a bit about what mere citizens of a nation actually want?
Instead they should be grateful for the opportunity to help pay for making the world safer in 100 years from the deluded dreams of his backers.
As his predecessor said when the pesky peasants were making their uppity demands, “let them eat cake”.

John Endicott
Reply to  hunter
December 5, 2018 6:52 am

And it worked out so well for her (even if though she actually never said that famous line, which had been attributed, in one variation or another, to several other royal elites going back at least a century before her)

Steve O
December 5, 2018 4:52 am

“President Macron hoped to lead the world into a new low carbon age, but it turns out he canā€™t even lead his own country.”
— Through their wide adoption of nuclear power, France is already leading as a low-carbon emitter. Nobody should be surprised that a welfare state like France would favor large tax increases. If Macron cared more about France being a leader, he’d be telling the rest of Europe to give up this renewable energy nonsense and build out some nuclear power.

It’s the prospect of higher taxes that has brought most governments on board with the climate change mantra, although the opportunity to direct infrastructure spending on high-visibility virtue signaling schemes like wind farms is a nice secondary benefit.

John Endicott
Reply to  Steve O
December 5, 2018 5:28 am

The problem is France is cutting their nuclear alongside cutting their coal in favor of wind and Solar.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/france-close-14-nuclear-reactors-2035-macron-110407929.html

France relies on nuclear power for nearly 72 percent of its electricity needs, though the government wants to reduce this to 50 percent by 2030 or 2035 by developing more renewable energy sources.

Steve O
Reply to  John Endicott
December 5, 2018 8:12 am

Yes, that’s a puzzle isn’t it? I mean, Life on Earth is supposedly at stake, and resources are limited, and they’re going to expend a lot of money AND emit a lot of CO2 to convert from one zero-emission technology to another…

It’s almost as if the true motivation is something other else.

Ian Macdonald
Reply to  Steve O
December 5, 2018 3:31 pm

I’ve said this all along. The quickest way to cut carbon emissions is to use shale gas. The same stuff the Greens are fanatically against. Even though the extraction process is identical to that used for geothermal energy, which they are pushing.

They try to cover this with a nonsense story about methane being ‘an extremely powerful greenhouse gas’ but a quick run of MODTRAN proves the inaccuracy of this.

Thus, the real agenda isn’t carbon emissions.

John Endicott
Reply to  Ian Macdonald
December 6, 2018 6:10 am

Of course it isn’t. It never was. It’s all about power (and I don’t mean the kind you can get from fossil fuels, nuclear, wind or solar).

Paul Matthews
December 5, 2018 9:54 am

Geoff Chambers, the left-wing climate skeptic who lives in France, has a good article about the protests,

https://cliscep.com/2018/12/04/technocrate-moi/

“Macronā€™s ardent espousal of the climate cause confirms everything people like me and Ben Pile have been saying for years ā€“ that the environmental movement, far from being a grassroots affair, is a cult of the chattering classes, the cool city-dwelling, left-leaning hipsters centred round the opinionating professions; the media, advertising, marketing, and information technology”

Lance of BC
Reply to  Paul Matthews
December 5, 2018 1:23 pm

AND useful idiots.

Johann Wundersamer
December 6, 2018 2:19 am

Wie kann man
in Deutschland leben ohne Heizung ohne Strom

Voraussetzungen:

ein Arbeitsplatz, besser
ein Arbeitsplatz mit Kantine oder
ein Arbeitsplatz mit WĆ¼rstchenbude vor dem Werktor
eine Wohnung in einem mehrstƶckigen GebƤude ab Stockwerk 3 ( eigene KƶrperwƤrme, GebƤude heizt mit ! )
AbhƤrtung fĆ¼r Kaltduschen, Sommer und Winter
Mƶglichkeit zum Einkaufen fahren Fahrrad oder KFZ
gute Nerven

Zu Hause, warme GetrƤnke, warme Mahlzeiten

geschieht mit Teelichtern:
https://www.google.at/search?client=ms-android-samsung&ei=OusIXImmL4uusAHWtaGgDA&q=teelichter&oq=teelich&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-serp. und https://www.google.at/search?q=st%C3%B6vchen+f%C3%BCr+teelichter&client=ms-android-samsung&prmd=isvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP0s_g84rfAhWrMewKHSiJA60Q_AUoAXoECBQQAQ&biw=360&bih=560

Im Backrohr E-Herd

kann man alles zubereiten mit Teelichtern und z.B. https://goo.gl/images/3YdN3x

Achtung:

max. 4 Teelichter im Backrohr – die Dinger heizen ordentlich!
dabeibleiben – ohne Strom gibt es auch keine Zeitschaltuhr!

Warme GetrƤnke zubereiten

mit Stƶvchen und Teelicht:

https://goo.gl/images/3YdN3x

_________________________________

Anmerkungen, Korrekturen, Tipps erwĆ¼nscht !