• Obviouslywrong@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    The problem is that they have too much debt and they can’t just ignore it anymore. They can complain but they have to cut spending somewhere or increase revenue. Now they can raise the retirement age for everyone. Or they can take the money from the billionaires. But that still doesn’t get you closer to lowering the deficit which is very high well over 100 percent of GDP. That means the protests are really just complaining that France doesn’t have enough money but you can’t keep the spending going as is without a lot of drastic cuts. All you can do is cuts now or kick the can down the road and hope something changes. Or just default on the debt and say fuck it.

    • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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      33 minutes ago

      Or, we could collectively own and manage production and distribution according to a scientific plan, without needing to stuff the pockets of capitalists that dominate the entirety of society.

    • teslekova@lemmy.ml
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      1 hour ago

      Yeah, so raise taxes. France is like a lot of neoliberal governments around the world, pretending that raising taxes when you have a structural deficit isn’t an option. Macron especially is being disingenuous here.

    • ynthrepic@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Raise revenue you say? There’s plenty of disgustingly wealthy people who could do with less wealth.

    • Lyricism6055@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      How does the billionaire and taxation problem in france compare to the us? I assume it’s more “fair” but I know basically nothing about it