Thanks as always to Pirate’s Cove and The Other McCain for the Rule Five links, and to my good friends over at Glibertarians for publishing my latest outdoor article, this one on cutlery.
Meanwhile, the French are growing some balls over Macron’s gasoline tax hikes. Excerpt:
Macron has so far held strong and insisted the fuel tax rises are a necessary pain to reduce France’s dependence on fossil fuels and fund renewable energy investments — a cornerstone of his reforms of the nation. He will defend fresh plans to make the “energy transition” easier next week.
Paris deployed some 3,000 security forces on Saturday, notably around tourist-frequented areas, after an unauthorized attempt last week to march on the presidential Elysee Palace.
Police officials said that a no-go zone, set up around key areas including the presidential palace and the National Assembly on the Left Bank of the Seine River, has not been breached.
But authorities are struggling because the movement has no clear leader and has attracted a motley group of people with broadly varying demands.
The anger is mainly over a hike in the diesel fuel tax, which has gone up seven euro cents per liter (nearly 30 U.S. cents per gallon) and will keep climbing in coming years, according to Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne. The tax on gasoline is also to increase four euro cents. Gasoline currently costs about 1.64 euros a liter in Paris ($7.06 a gallon), slightly more than diesel.
Far left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon explained to BFMTV the historical importance of this issue in the Gallic mindset: “When tax is no longer agreed to, it’s the start of revolutions in France.”
An honest-to-gosh tax revolt, in France, of all places. Who woulda thunk it?
There’s a lesson in this for the would-be tax hikers here in the States. People will only put up with so much in the name of increasing revenue, and that’s precisely what the Imperial City wants. Nobody much in either party gives a shit about lowering deficits or reducing Imperial debt; that’s just a talking point for when the other party holds the checkbook. They want revenue and they want to sell envy and buy votes, so they talk taxes; never mind that no tax scheme in history has ever managed to snag more than about 22-23% of GDP, never mind that taxation affects behavior, never mind that the Laffer Curve is a real thing, never mind that taxation is theft.
It seems Macron and Co. are getting a hard lesson in that right now. Don’t think it can’t happen here.
