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from the everybody-should-pay-their-fair-share dept.
On Saturday, November 16th, around 282,000 people blocked roads and highways all over France. The protesters, nicknamed the gillets jaunes after the yellow warning vests they wore, had organized through Facebook. Their beef: the increase in environmental taxes on gasoline, on top of a number of other tax increases.
We don't disagree with having to pay more to help act for the environment and fight climate change, was the general opinion, but why should it be only the little folks who have to pay while the elite can easily grin and bear it -- why not tax also all that heavy fuel burned by aeroplanes and tanker ships?
The action, which persisted throughout the day, resulted in over 100 wounded and one tragic death when a mother driving her child to hospital panicked.
The protesters do have a point. While media and politics rightly, if very, very much belatedly, are warning about climate change, the alternatives proposed clearly are not to be taken seriously.
The hard choices we need to face apparently come down to cities investing in smart cameras to fine visitors based on production year and type of their automobile. Public transport investing will come, but not to the countryside where car/ride sharing, Uber and similar services simply are not viable; Tesla and relatives are on another price planet for ordinary people.
As to the EU's emission trading system (ETS) that should drive industry to climate change action: news broke on the same day as the gillets jaunes actions that Britain -- on the verge of leaving the EU -- is one of the biggest net exporters of such credits: Britain had 900 million of these credits too much, for the years 2013-2015 alone.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by RandomFactor on Sunday November 18 2018, @02:54PM
This was (essentially) my thought as well.
What idiot says to tax shipping because the burden is currently on the little people? Where do they think that tax is going to go?
The fundamental disconnect between taxing something, and what actually then happens with those costs, is staggering all across the world I guess. I don't know when the shift to complete functional economic illiteracy started, but it was going on at least 30 years ago (and I suspect significantly further) and has only gotten much worse over time.
Ever look at something government does, and the blindingly glaringly obvious consequence, and then listen to the protestations of surprise from politicians who seem to think that the world is some sort of completely static painting they can just dab some pigment on here or there that won't adjust to what they do?
Critical thinking and logic are dead at all levels. The ability to follow a logical chain of events to its conclusion is a complete non starter.
I would love to see any politician that votes for something which displays 'unintended consequences' promptly removed from office. There is no real accountability. A politician can destroy the lives and livelihoods of millions, and the absolute worst that happens is there is a slightly increased chance they get a cushy retirement early in a few years.
Until we put some form of real accountability into schools for the zombies they churn out, and politics for the idiocy they implement, little will change. The question is what and how to implement that accountability.
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