Milton Friedman famously said, “I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason whenever its possible.” Since last week, a grassroots French movement named “Les gilets Jaunes” or the Yellow Jackets (symbolized by the wearing of a yellow road hazard signalization jacket) has gathered international attention and shaken the social fabric of French life. The undertaking was born on social media and spread like wildfire. This mass cooperation tool was used to sign and spread petitions and organize mass demonstrations, which it has so far succeeded in doing.
This social crusade began as a Facebook and Twitter revolt against the newly state-imposed ecological taxes on fuel and gasoline, raising them an additional 5 percent planned for Jan. 1, after the past 15 percent raise from 2017 to 2018. A petition written demanding a reduction on this tax gathered close to a million signatures. This governmental “incentive” aims at pushing consumers to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies by taxing the former. The program, first put in motion under the socialist former President Francois Hollande, plans to gradually increase the financial burden of using fossil fuels in the coming years.
However, as events progressed, a majority of the movement came to champion a reduction of all taxes and regulations deemed excessive in France, as well as incarnating opposition to an ever-unpopular President Emmanuel Macron. Among these sideline causes are spending power, with a recent poll showing that 62 percent of French citizens deem that transition to ecological energy should be slowed in its favor, and an anti-elite rhetoric, with some yellow cells calling for the dissolution of the French Assemblee Nationale.
Where this movement gets trickier is that as it has grown, it has lended itself to usurpation by power-hungry populists of widely different ideological corners eager to claim the title of “The People’s voice.” Marine Le Pen, the far-right politician and Jean Luc Melanchon, the quasi-Marxist Castro apologist, have both championed the movement, despite having almost never advocated for a significant tax reduction or ecological transitional measures themselves.
On Monday, out of this seemingly disorganized headless uproar, a somewhat coherent leadership has emerged. Eight “messengers” have been nominated by a loosely defined “assembly” as official spokespersons and intend on communicating demands to the Macron government. This is refreshing and necessary, mainly because this justified ras-le-bol against ridiculously high taxes needs clear-cut demands and sober negotiating skills to have any impact on legislation. What these legislation propositions will be, originating from this ideologically diverse body, nobody yet knows.
The eight messengers include Priscillia Ludosky, an entrepreneur in bio-cosmetics behind the original petition, and Eric Drouet, the original creator of the Facebook group. The negotiating body claims two objectives for negotiating with Macron: First, a reduction of all taxes currently enacted within the French fiscal system, and second, the creation of a citizen’s assembly to discuss a sensical transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
This is really the cusp of the debate. The government wishes to tax fuel and gasoline to incentivize transition to renewable energies, and the people are sick and tired of being taxed, and of not keeping enough of their monthly salary. It is good to remind all who are quick to downplay this movement and who wish to force an abrupt ecological transition that France remains the European champion of fiscal and social taxes, according to the Molinari Economical Institute, and tied for the world title only with Denmark. However, this ecological transition simply must be made at some point if we are at all to tackle the problem of climate change and carbon emissions.
Denying that the state has a role to play in incentivizing the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is ridiculous, but taxing fuel and gasoline, who are relatively minor problems compared to other carbon sources, used principally by people of the lowest income bracket who depend on their cars to work and live might not be the best solution.
So says GenerationLibre’s expert Francois-Xavier Oliveau, the author of Microcapitalisme: Vers un nouveau pacte social, who claims in a paper published by Le Figaro, that if the state wishes to tax 44.60 Euros per ton of carbon emission, it should add a 1.30 Euro tax to every kilo of beef produced to compensate for methane emissions, as well as 265 Euros per ton of fertilizer and 75 Euros for round-trip flights between Paris and New York.
When it comes to taxing fuel, the actual amount that would match in the harm on the environment would be 11 cents per liter, a big difference compared to the current 62 cents per liter currently enacted. This measure essentially penalizes people of the lowest income bracket, rather than big farming or aviation industries who can afford it. And that’s for one of the least ecologically harmful practices when compared with the climate unfriendly industries cited above, who realistically represent the major share of the problem.
Nobody really knows what this movement literally stands for. We know what the original ideas are, but in the wake of what started as peaceful protests to slow traffic around roundabouts escalated to far-right hooligans, far-left black blocs, and the usual hoodlums engaging in destruction and rioting. This is most notable on the Champs Elysee, where 8,000 yellow jackets produced what Macron said resembled a warzone, causing more that 150 arrests and mass destruction of property and theft.
This is inexcusable, but it would be foolish to attribute this to what really is a sensible cry for a reduction of non-sensical and ineffective taxes, in a country submerged by them.
If this movement is to remain loyal to its core ideas and be efficient in pushing legislation, it needs a coherent ideological platform and financial as well as ecological arguments in their defense. A pacifist, nonconfrontational approach to assembly remains the best way to get a message across in the street. It must also adhere to the following French rule of thumb: If you want the people on your side, stop blocking the damn traffic.
Louis Sarkozy is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a student in philosophy and religion at New York University. He is the youngest son of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
