whoa whoa whoa.....60% of the cost of fuel in France is tax. On top of all the other taxes you pay, no wonder regular folk are pissed. A gas tax doesn't really hurt rich folks living in cities too much, but the "sans dents" take it in the gut. They take in the gut enough, eventually they'll come for the ones punching them.
The French need tax relief and loosened economic rules.
Well, that's effectively killed any movement toward a nationwide carbon tax here in the United States if there ever was one. What Democratic trifecta wants to deal with a taxpayer revolt?
The irony of course being that 'loosened economic rules' have been extremely unpopular when Hollande (and Macron as his Labour minister) tried them- my understanding is that this is basically the typical 'we want lower taxes but still more public spending' protest.
This is clearly a situation that has yet to be fully defined by any one political actor - whether it will be known as a "typical" protest or not has yet to be determined...
the game is afoot!
