The financial numbers are on Macron's side, so I do not understand why he didn't try to keeping pushing those numbers on the French public until the numbers drill through their thick skulls. Maybe he just got fed up?
Force-feeding it through their legislative process upsets a lot of people, and it'd give the public the ammo they need to oppose the policy as a matter of violating democratic procedure. And then it makes it hard to govern, which is exactly what is happening now, and I'd say the outcome right now is not good either.
Using our own example, BC should have stuck with the switch to HST. But nope -- our voters are too stupid and pissed off to know what's good for them, and our politicians are too chicken shxt to make a stand for what's good.
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Originally Posted by supafamous
I don't blame the protests but I think this is one of those cases where this is good, if painful, policy that needed to happen. Kudos to Macron for pushing this through despite what it might mean for his future as a politician.
I remember when the GST showed up way back in the 80's when the Mulroney gov't implemented it and there were howls of protests around it but it was a necessary change in taxation. Same with the carbon tax - it's one of the better taxes we have.
OTOH, we have local politicians who are too chicken shit to mass rezone our cities to make housing affordable and who are hollowing out our city centers as a result.
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