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Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

nytimes.com

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Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#41

Post by mrighele »

closeparen wrote: post #35
rasz wrote: post #12

"fun" fact: average earner in France can buy ~2K liters of diesel with one months salary, average earner in Poland ~600 liters. Half both numbers for minimum wages. French started this protest over expensive diesel ...

France has only 479 cars per 1,000 people [0]. Only 13% of Parisians commute by car. [1] Drivers are a minority of the population, whose choices cause immense harm to everyone else. Their getting steamrolled by national policy seems completely reasonable. Their attempt to hold the rest of the country hostage does not. [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_vehicle... [1] https://www.citylab.com/tran…

Number of cars per person is not a reasonable metric. In a family of four with a single working parent the driver is the minority but brings home 100% of the income. People in Paris can commute without cars because they have alternatives, unlike many people living in other parts of the country. (in other words, those who have to drive a car are those who cannot afford to live in Paris)

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#45

Post by mikelyons »

sometime wrote: post #18

ELI5: What is the consensus on the disadvantages and advantages of diesel? I've heard conflicting information on this: Some say reducing the number of cows would be much more effective for slowing down global warming. Some say diesel exhaust fumes are not so bad and are unlikely to affect our health very much.

Diesel exhaust is very harmful, moreso than gasoline car exhaust.

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#46

Post by daleco »

JeanMarcS wrote: post #19
rdm_blackhole wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Taxes on gasoline make up 50% of the price. To pretend that the increase in taxes is there to help pay for renewable energies is a joke. It's not a secret that the government is broke and looking to raise money any way it can. It's trying to pass this tax increase as something that needs to be done to save the planet. But they dont tax the fuel for tankers or airplanes so where is the logic? It's not the little guy w…

> But they dont tax the fuel for tankers or airplanes so where is the logic? Can they ? The only thing that will happen is no plane or tanker will buy fuel in France if it is not a decision made on an international level, no ?

I think that planes refuel at each trip. They wouldn’t have the choice.

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#47

Post by frenchyfrog »

eli wrote: post #32
rasz wrote: post #12

"fun" fact: average earner in France can buy ~2K liters of diesel with one months salary, average earner in Poland ~600 liters. Half both numbers for minimum wages. French started this protest over expensive diesel ...

Is it truly about diesel or is it like how the American revolution was about tea?

It is looking very much like the beginning of US tea party. A lot of retired people because their pensions diminished by 2-3%. Single parents who are really struggling because of housing prices. And then add to it all kind of extrems right, left etc. It just started about diesel.

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#48

Post by jondumbau »

rasz wrote: post #23
sometime wrote: post #18

ELI5: What is the consensus on the disadvantages and advantages of diesel? I've heard conflicting information on this: Some say reducing the number of cows would be much more effective for slowing down global warming. Some say diesel exhaust fumes are not so bad and are unlikely to affect our health very much.

Even if you dont care about global warming, diesel produces smog in cities. DPF and EGR delete is very popular among diesel owners, and rarely policed.

how popular do you really think it is in the average population...

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#49

Post by Tuxer »

rdm_blackhole wrote: post #15
hbbio wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

France has high taxes, but at the same time provides more services than other countries: free education including higher education, free healthcare, generous unemployment package, etc. Even more, this is done without closing the door to immigration. Regarding the current movement which started with taxes on gas, the tax raise is insignificant vs. the actual oil price increase. Read this article (in French) for more i…

Taxes on gasoline make up 50% of the price. To pretend that the increase in taxes is there to help pay for renewable energies is a joke. It's not a secret that the government is broke and looking to raise money any way it can. It's trying to pass this tax increase as something that needs to be done to save the planet. But they dont tax the fuel for tankers or airplanes so where is the logic? It's not the little guy w…

It is. 40% of french emissions are due to personal transportation (cars), 8% airplanes.

Re: Violence Escalates as France Scrambles to Respond to ‘Yellow Vest’ Protesters

#50

Post by wbrasky »

mikelyons wrote: post #45
sometime wrote: post #18

ELI5: What is the consensus on the disadvantages and advantages of diesel? I've heard conflicting information on this: Some say reducing the number of cows would be much more effective for slowing down global warming. Some say diesel exhaust fumes are not so bad and are unlikely to affect our health very much.

Diesel exhaust is very harmful, moreso than gasoline car exhaust.

citation needed
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