Posted on 12/05/2018 5:43:28 PM PST by Kaslin
PARIS -- Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson moved from Malibu to Marseille recently and made a trenchant observation on Twitter about the recent fuel tax protests by "Gilets Jaunes" ("Yellow Vests") motorists.
"I despise violence," Anderson tweeted, "but what is the violence of all these people and burned luxurious cars, compared to the structural violence of the French -- and global -- elites?"
The problem with France is indeed structural. The current system really isn't that much different from the old one that dominated prior to the French Revolution. The elites are still there. So is the king. He's now just called the president.
Sure, there's a democratic "choice" through voting -- just as there was a choice of seats aboard the deck of the Titanic as the ship went down. Whatever choice the French make at the voting booth these days decides little more than the flavor of sauce with which their wallets will be devoured.
Based on historical precedent, the idea that all hell could break loose in France isn't entirely far-fetched. But as long as French elites still have their heads firmly attached to their shoulders, things are still relatively fine. It's been a really long time since the guillotine was actually a thing here. But back then, when citizens were fed up with the way the elites were running the country, they burned it to the ground in order to rebuild it to their liking.
One reason there hasn't been a true rebellion is that the French still look to their elites to take care of them. As a media colleague recently explained: "We French like the idea of less government, but we also like the idea of our benefits. We have the best health care system in the world."
This is the big lie that the French have long told themselves. Many think it's just fine that the government takes so much of their hard-earned money because ultimately it's recycled back to them and others in the form of nanny-state benefits. But as a resident of France, I've seen benefits (particularly health care benefits) dwindle over the last 10 years to cover less and less, without a commensurate reduction in taxes. I've also seen French people in true need continue to suffer while the government diverts its resources to newly arrived migrants.
The Jacobin illusion of one indivisible French republic under which all are equal is a myth. The working poor are paying a disproportionate share.
Some international observers find it hard to believe that an increase in the fuel tax could set off such a reaction, arguing that there must be some invisible interventionist hand behind this revolt. Look, France is one of the most highly taxed countries in Europe. The amount of money that the average person gets to keep once the state takes its cut makes survival nearly impossible for many in the working class. You have to live here to understand that this was a ticking time bomb. The surprise really isn't that these protests are occurring now, but that they didn't start years ago.
The flip side of demanding lower taxes is potentially getting more autonomy -- members of the French working class would be responsible for managing their own resources rather than having the government take care of them. The French can't have it both ways. If they want the nanny state out of their wallets, they need to cut the umbilical cord. Are they willing to do that? Are the working-class French prepared to renounce government entitlements and benefits in exchange for lower taxes?
The French government has proposed a moratorium on the fuel tax increase. This doesn't mean it will stop finding ways to stuff its pockets with tax dollars to fund the vague promise of controlling the Earth's thermostat.
The Yellow Vests may have won the battle, but they have yet to win the war. Victory can't be declared until the French government significantly lowers taxes across the board -- and in exchange the Yellow Vests agree to increased fiscal responsibility over their own lives.
[”We have the best health care system in the world.”]
We got a guy that can make that go away. We’ll fund-raise the airfare for a one-way ticket if you promise not to return him. Comes with free wookie, too.
Get displaced and eliminated by muslims courtesy of the ruling elite.
Pam sounds Trumpian.
Sounds like France’s ‘working poor’ includes their middle class.
The continuously robbed masses know in their hearts that they’re fodder, are fed up, and are getting pissed. In many places.
The EU is stacked full of dry tinder, and sparks are blowing around. America is on the same path.
state-owned France24 says more concessions are on offer:
5 Dec: France24: AFP: Macron calls for political unity in face of ‘Yellow Vest’ unrest
The French government on Wednesday urged parties across the political divide to calm protests that have raged nationwide for more than two weeks, and signalled it was ready to make further concessions to avoid more violence..
The 40-year-old centrist president (Macron) was heckled Tuesday as he visited a burned-out government building in central France, hours after a new opinion poll showed his approval rating at just 23 percent.
He is yet to comment publicly since returning to France from a G20 summit in Argentina on Sunday morning...
https://www.france24.com/en/20181205-french-president-macron-government-yellow-vest-call-parties-calm-protests-unity.
They now have a counter example in President Trump.
And they don't give a crap about carbon emissions targets if the solution is in their wallets.
The problem is that a lefty doesn’t know who to root for in France right now. Macron jacked taxes through the roof in order to force the people off of fossil fuels and “save” them from the evils of climate change. The peasants, who never miss an opportunity to vote for more lefty policies, are suddenly finding their cost of living going through the roof so they’re biting the hand that feeds them. Macron’s shaking his head trying to figure out why they’re so ungrateful at him for trying to save them from themselves. They’re ticked off because it was supposed to be the rich that got taxed more, not them.
I love the line about France having the best health care system in the world. That guy obviously doesn’t get outside of France much. French health care is bordering on third world. I have a colleague that had to be rushed to a Parisian hospital for an emergency procedure, they almost killed him. He said the place was barbaric, unsanitary and patients stacked on gurneys in the hallways.
French hospitals are so bad that many years ago American expats living in Paris got together and opened their own hospital so they could get U.S. quality care. The problem now is that they’ll take anyone that can pay so the wealthy french pay to use the American Hospital in order to get away from the french medical system. The hospital fills up quickly and often American expats can’t get admitted.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Hospital_of_Paris
As Ann Coulter has pointed out, along with her usual reams of evidence, the French Revolution was a revolution based on Left Wing ideas and causes, and that's why they have what they have.
Our Revolution, on the other hand, was based on conservative values and causes.
Aux barricades! A bas les aristos!
I always said Pamela Anderson is a lot more than just a pretty face.
The maxim a government big enough to take of you turns out to be a government NOT big ebough to take care of you.
As it stands, despite oppressive levels of taxation, the French state is increasingly incapable of meeting that responsibility.
Its one thing to hand over everything in your wallet when all your cares are taken care of and life’s worries don’t stress you out.
When the state breaks the social contract with you to do that, what people once accepted passively has become intolerable.
In a word, the dirigiste state is gone but nothing has arisen to replace it.
..... Silly Question ..... It's Europe .... The answer will always be, as with our New Generation in America ........... "Free Stuff"... or More Higher Subsidized stuff ....
In 1788 the sans culottes (without breeches), those of low and middle income, rose up against the self important French elites determined to keep the small people in their place and to keep themselves in unearned comfort. This touched off the first modern socialist revolution and 25 years of continuous war in Europe.
In 2018 the gilets jaunes are doing the same. For the most part, so too are the new French elites. Those on the streets in their yellow vests must understand the similarity. Will the French army join the rioters as they did in 1788? If so, an ugly historical repeat may unfold before our eyes.
The NappyOne
Bkmk
“But as a resident of France, I’ve seen benefits (particularly health care benefits) dwindle over the last 10 years to cover less and less, without a commensurate reduction in taxes. I’ve also seen French people in true need continue to suffer while the government diverts its resources to newly arrived migrants.”
We are doing the same thing in this country, and the “dry tinder” is rapidly being replaced by outstretched palms of imported foreigners. If Europe had enough dry tinder, they wouldn’t be importing millions of parasites into their homelands. The muzzies are the “replacement tinder”...and non-contributing beneficiaries of the welfare state.
“They’re ticked off because it was supposed to be the rich that got taxed more, not them.”
Yep.
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