Europe, Boring Until it's Not

[DBTrek]

It's like a riddle:

Q: When is socialism not actually socialism?
A: When Europeans encounter it.

[BjornP]

But maybe I'm high, and in Europe mass-nationalizing entire industries isn't part of socialism.
/shrug

"Entire industries"? Yeah, nah... that's not actually what the (dated) article of yours is posting. "Part of Socialism".... clever wording, that. But still, Socialists will indeed use Nationalization... They will also use public schools. Ergo, one might say "public schools is part of Socialism"... *cough*

Get back to me when France actually meets the definition of Socialism, DB. As in, nationalizing ALL private businesses.

[Montegriffo]

I just posted a Bloomberg article about the 2019 budget.
Did you even bother to read it or are you just going to hold on to your ignorance like a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a life raft?

Did the 2019 budget say fuel taxes (causing the riots) were going to rich people and big business, or are you still pulling red herrings out and waving them around?

The budget outlines how Macron intends to spend his tax revenues.
Since only 7 billion euros of the fuel tax is going to environmental policies and the rest (27 billion) is going into the general tax funds, along with cuts in benefits and public employees, it will help pay for tax cuts to businesses and the rich.

Now you provide a source for the revenue being spent on socialist policies.

[DBTrek]

"Entire industries"? Yeah, nah... that's not actually what the (dated) article of yours is posting. (I guess because tobacco, airlines, and telecommunications aren't industries in Europe?) "Part of Socialism".... clever wording, that. But still, Socialists will indeed use Nationalization... They will also use public schools. Ergo, one might say "public schools is part of Socialism"... *cough*

Get back to me when France actually meets the definition of Socialism, DB. As in, nationalizing ALL private businesses.

Of course.
If there's one black market hotdog stand operating in a nation, it ain't socialist.

Europeans, folks.
There you have it.

[DBTrek]

The budget outlines how Macron intends to spend his tax revenues.
Since only 7 billion euros of the fuel tax is going to environmental policies and the rest (27 billion) is going into the general tax funds, along with cuts in benefits and public employees, it will help pay for tax cuts to businesses and the rich.

Now you provide a source for the revenue being spent on socialist policies.

I'll do even better, Monte. I'll provide nearly IDENTICAL evidence.

Since only 7 billion euros of the fuel tax is going to environmental policies and the rest (27 billion) is going into the general tax funds, along with cuts in benefits and public employees, it will help pay run the nationalized industries of France.

I see why you don't bother fact gathering now.
That was a lot less work than most of my posts.
Awesome!

[Martin Hash]

Collectivism is when the needs of the group come before the wants of an individual; all the world, except the U.S., is that. The degree to which they take it goes through various amounts of Socialism to Marxism.

[BjornP]

It's like a riddle:

Q: When is socialism not actually socialism?
A: When Europeans encounter it.

Europeans must be the only ones left with encyclopedias these days, I guess. I suspect your tax-funded SJW college professors and their hordes of slobbering students burned the last of them in the town squares. So sad.

[DBTrek]

It's like a riddle:

Q: When is socialism not actually socialism?
A: When Europeans encounter it.

Europeans must be the only ones left with encyclopedias these days, I guess. I suspect your tax-funded SJW college professors and their hordes of slobbering students burned the last of them in the town squares. So sad.

We hid our cache of Encyclopedias inside the statues of Confederate Generals, figuring they'd be safe from college Marxists there.
That was a mistake.

[Montegriffo]

More fact-finding for DB to ignore as he flails about trying to insist fuel taxes were raised to pay for socialist policies...
Note the reference to dividends currently coming from nationalised industry. ie they make money not consume government revenue.

PARIS—President Emmanuel Macron’s pro-business overhaul of France shifted up a gear Wednesday as the government announced plans to privatize state assets and pour funds into risky technology investments, a break with tradition in a country where the state has wielded power in the boardrooms of large companies.

The French government said it would change the laws that prevent the state from selling shares in the airport operator Aéroports de Paris SA, national lottery operator La Française des Jeux and energy company Engie SA . Officials say the legal changes will pave the way for France to start selling stakes next year to pay down national debt and bolster a state-controlled innovation fund.

“It is vital to redefine the state’s role in our economy. Do we want a state that is content with getting dividends, or a strategic state that prepares the future?” economy and finance minister Bruno Le Maire said in a radio interview Wednesday.

The privatizations are Mr. Macron’s latest move to shake up the economy after rewiring labor laws, slashing corporate and wealth taxes, and overhauling the state’s railway operator. The 40-year-old president is betting that his rapid pro-business overhauls will spur risk-taking, growth and job creation.

But his attempts to upend France’s economic policies are meeting with growing opposition. Rail unions have entered their third month of on-off strikes in protest against his plans to end the monopoly of railway operator SNCF and change working conditions. A video released by his office of Mr. Macron complaining about the huge sums of money France spends on welfare sparked further ire.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/macron-pus ... 1528901351

[DBTrek]

Thanks for the 17th article *NOT* corroborating your ridiculous claims Monte.

If you're open to requests, the next time you cite yet another article that doesn't say anything about French fuel taxes going to the rich, can it be about Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate? I'm itching to play this game but I have papers to write so it's just languishing on my desk here.