I have seen some celebratory comments and memes in social media regarding the protest of the Yellow Vests in France. some regard them as the triumph of a new social change against the left-wing politics of Macron and Socialists in general. I got news for everybody: No great changes will happen and this is nothing new in France. In fact, if history teaches us something is that probably the French will be worse later next year.
It seems the French go though one of these social shakedown every 20-30 years or so. Think about it, the French Revolution ended with a country in chaos, and things so screwed up that they got rid of a king and ended up with Emperor Bonparte. Jumping to the 20th Century and the day of the Liberation of Paris, the Communists trued to raise shit fighting with other Resistance units for control of the city and even trying to pop DeGaulle as we walked in. The whole did not go farther because the whole US Army taking over the city.
The most romanticized of the was the May 1968 protests which affected the whole country and changed the Country in the direction of European Socialism which has progressively making a France a bigger mockery than ever and brought is the yellow Vest Revolt. What will it bring? No idea yet, but I am betting on nothing good. And since it is environment, I wouldn’t be surprised if they established the infamous mile tax or some sort of other restriction that will affect private car owners to subsidize cheap public transportation. Let’s not only do it for the environment, but for the poor.
It is the same old shit in a different decade, that is all.
If what I’ve read is correct (and that’s a big IF, as most news is fake), one of the things the yellow vests want is an increase in the minimum wage. So while it’s amusing to see a globalist dolt like Macron suffer, it doesn’t sound like this is quite the revolt a lot of Americans would like to think it is.
Today’s WSJ has an article about some of the debate in France being about opposition to the repeal of a tax, on the grounds that this is “helping the rich”.
I have a rather cynical view of France. One part is the observation that there have been three attempts to conquer Europe, by Bonaparte, Hitler, and Stalin. Of the three, Hitler went down in ignominy; Stalin has some level of respect; but Bonaparte is considered a Great Frenchman. The other part (which is related) is that France seems to think of the EU as the continuation of Bonaparte’s effort, but this time by non-military means.
The rallying cry of the French revolution was “Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.” For the next 200+ years of French history, the government has done its best to eliminate one or all of these goals.
They’re running out of Other People’s Money, like most Ponzi Schemes tend to do. So, one group of suckers isn’t getting all the free money they were promised. They’re not wanting to jettison the scam, they just want the free money they think the other group is holding.
The same is true here, only here it is called Social Security. And its newer variants, Universal Income and Medicare For All.