Ok, if that is what you have been saying all along then we have clearly been arguing past each other.DBTrek wrote: Tue Dec 11, 2018 7:16 pm The man (Macron) is not the state (France).
The man doesn’t need income from taxes to keep programs afloat. The state does. The socialist programs and industries of France need those taxes to survive. Macron doesn’t.
Not sure why this eludes you.
I still think you are barking up the wrong tree calling France a socialist country. They have a mixed economy with mostly privatised industry and they have been moving away from nationalisation over recent years.
Macron was their Thatcher but it seems likely he will not be able to continue the modernisation of France and still keep his position.
On the narrow issue of whether the fuel tax increase was intended to pay for France's socialist policies we are probably at an impasse. Time to move on and discuss the wider ramifications of the violent protests.
:Olive branch:
