Posted on by Californiacontrarian

Is This an I.Q. Test ?. . . Oui!

Over the last few days, I have read multiple newspaper descriptions of what was happening in France with the protests of the “gilets juanes.” The fires and the widespread rioting were precipitated by a gas tax increase. As I read the various articles I could not help but play a substitution game – substituting “California” for “France” and “Governor. Brown” for “President Macron.” (A lot of what follows are sentences taken directly from various news articles.)

I invite you to play the substitution game along with me. Have fun!
12/3/18
The worst rioting to hit France in years left President Macron weighing an emergency crackdown on protests. The gilets juanes (yellow jackets) movement was sparked in October by Mr. Macron’s decision to raise fuel taxes. The protests gained strength in areas outside big cities where people depend on cars. The movement has broadened to those who say that Macron’s policies punish the working class. The outbursts of violence raised the stakes for Mr. Macron plans to push through his economic overhauls, as Mr. Macron’s party is firmly in control of the legislature. Many at the protesters said that low wages and high taxes make it impossible for ordinary French to make ends meet, “It’s always the little guy who pays.”
12/4/18
“There is no Plan B because there is no Planet B,” Emmanuel Macron lectured Donald Trump last year. The French President has viewed stopping climate change as a grand legacy project, and he had hoped to use higher fuel taxes to discourage driving for the sake of slashing carbon emissions. It did not matter to him that French emissions were already low on a per-capital basis. But this did matter to lower income voters whose use of cars for daily life and business was about to become much more expensive!
12/5/18
President Macron stopped his fuel tax increase after concluding that marginal reductions aren’t worth knee-capping an economy!
Now that you have read the aforementioned paragraphs, what is the basic difference between France and California? I could be glib and say that the people in France are just smarter as they apparently can recognize when they are getting shafted. Also, however, note that President Macron was honest when detailing the reason for his tax hike, whereas Governor Brown danced around the truth when he said that the only reason for his gas tax increase was that the infrastructure was in dire straights. His additional white lie was that this was the only way to remedy the problem. Perhaps if Macron had sold his gas tax as a way to fix infrastructure, the rioting would not have occurred on Paris streets . . . err . . . no, this could never happen because the French are, indeed, much smarter than Californians!

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