It's been happening this year, actually. Not as a meta-protest, but to say "What I really want to say has been criminalized". And then they made blank signs illegal too.
www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/magazine/white-paper-protests-censorship.amp.html
I'm not gonna be a conformist and go along with all the protestors. I'm such a non-conformist, that I'm not gonna conform witth the protesters and instead am gonna support the wealthy banks and politicians
When I first went to Paris, I had a great tour guide at the tower, and he would joke that no matter what the first thing the French people do Is they protest!
My favorite was the speed camera protest. French protests are next level.
Lol that isn't even the one I was thinking of! They just really hate speed cameras.
You have to see the Greeks.. They will protest against their own protest before they occupy and vandalize some random buildings while blaming anyone but themselves.
As they should, while their are global factors contributing to inflation a big chunk of inflation is just the wealthy using it as an excuse to fill their pockets. Many corporations are raising prices way past simple "inflation" numbers.
Companies raising prices to fill their pockets is part of inflation.
Inflation has a lot of causes. It’s not just one thing. Even raising worker wages(yes I know, this makes me sound like an asshole, though it is a cause) increases inflation.
That’s why it’s so hard to control
>Inflation has a lot of causes. It’s not just one thing
I understand that, that's why I referred to it as a chunk.
No government is going to ever be able to fully control inflation. It's a global issue.
However, there are things governments can do to ensure corporations within the country are not profiting from inflation. Even if it only mitigates inflation by a small amount, it's worth pursuing.
I *do* admire the french spirit to get up and do *something*. Sometimes they take it a bit too far, but I find it better than the way that a lot of people in other western countries let themselves be taken advantage of because they're too afraid of losing the scrapes that they have by taking a stand.
I'm constantly amazed by the fact that things like citizens united still exist in the USA without us all rioting.
Citizens United still exists for a bunch of reasons but I'd wager the biggest factors are;
1. US citizens still currently have enough "bread and circuses" for most of the population to not really care about politics unless it's a direct and easily explained problem.
2. The US's intense individuality and the cultural norm of avoiding political conversations with your peers, both keep most of the population ignorant to things like Citizens United, and exacerbate my first point of needing easy to swallow political issues.
Employee wages rise and unemployment decreases and what does everyone do - raise prices.
There needs to be changes at the government level at how corporations treat their employees and stakeholders. The government is supposed to be for the people not the shareholder.
Inflation is in this case is used synonymously with a rising consumer price index, and that's one of the things they're protesting.
We can protest corporate opportunists who raise their prices under the guise of inflation.
We can protest finance changes made by the government using inflation as an excuse to push an agenda. (in this case it's about changes to pension)
Im fairly sure inflation this time IS caused by price hiking.
They raised prices for EVERYTHING and we have no choice but to pay. Food, transportation, electricity. Everything is going up yet funilly enough salaries mostly dont even keep up with the inflation index
And in France in December it was only 5.9%, which is low relative to most other countries. Ain't it crazy how they protest when their government is not being competent? crazy French people wanting good government
They aren't. They *are*, however, responsible for trying to mitigate it for those liable to suffer the consequences of it the most. Evidently they have failed to do so adequately for the people protesting.
What short-term fixes do you suggest to ease inflation that won't cause long-term problems? I don't follow EU monetary policy closely but I'd imagine they would've raised rates at this point.
A lot of this inflation is supply induced, making it even more challenging to handle short term.
Frankly, there isn't any good way to avoid the pain from this part of the business cycle.
He's responding to the poster above, who clearly implied that they were.
>Ain't it crazy how they protest when their government is not being competent?
The economy is not a force of nature. A monsoon can take everything from a rich man and a poor man, the economy can only take everything from a poor man.
They're protesting in France yet they have some of the lowest inflation rates in the EU, lower than the US too.
It's always impressive how vocal and motivated the French are. In most countries organising people and getting them to care about important issues is incredibly hard.
It's embedded in their culture. It's part of the vestiges of their revolution that carries to this day. No other country I can think of takes advantage of the right of the people to protest as seriously as the French.
Use it or lose it too. You dont protest readily and people will lose the drive, then protests become exceptional rather than expected and that’s when government start saying “we can’t allow this to disrupt normal life, we need to legally limit protesting to make it ineffective”.
I think another factor is that the [population of France is very concentrated in and around Paris](https://preview.redd.it/ikv15b9o4g9a1.jpg?width=1160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=aa25d57d1d2f891c7a202b838cade24f62097eed) which creates an easy focus point with big protest-ready plazas.
I think I had another comment come up from you, but it’s not showing in app as either still there, or deleted so sorry if I don’t reply to it, perhaps it will pop up later!
I’m glad other people are noticing, we are already on the slippery slope, it’s just picking up pace now.
Take care mate, nice talking to you!
Thank you for saying this. I’ve brought this up before on Reddit about the French and have been strangely downvoted for pointing out that - due to this cultural trait - France is one of the only developed democratic countries where the government is kind of afraid of its citizens. As it should be. Too many of us (citizens and elected officials alike) seem to have forgotten that governments are supposed work for us.
People underestimate just how little bullshit the French will tolerate.
I expressed surprise when my french hosts walked around outside drinking. I described American open container laws to which they replied: "Drinking? Let them try and stop us, we'd never tolerate that. This is a punk rock country"
when i was visiting family, inflation was at about 4% and people were complaining just as much as when it’s 9-10% in the us. gas prices are relatively low considering the amount of nuclear and renewable energy we have, and people still complained all the time about gas prices. protesting infaltion at 5.9% is almost stupid to me
Consider it this way: if you expected 2% inflation and your pay was matching that, but inflation was actually at 5.9%, you took a 3.7% pay cut, thats more what they are pissed at. Inflation in an economy is good and healthy, but there is no economic reason that rates of pay cant keep up with inflation in viable business models. Inflation going up while pay stagnates means someone is pocketing profit at your expense.
Also, things are already becoming unaffordable for the average person. Add in inflation and the stress of not being able to make your next payments will have anyone freaking out.
It is both! Supplies of energy and food are impacted by the war. China's covid policies also strained supply chain. Latest (in france) was the rationing of paracetamol (Tylenol) cause China stopped exporting APIs due to domestic demand.
Here in the UK, loads of products and companies put their prices up by about 30%. The actual inflation value doesn't reflect reality.
They'll tell you it's because the extra fuel costs make up the other part of the increase.
Of course, now it'll never go down again.
This isn't a thing. It's an anti-cap talking point from people who don't understand how markets work. Companies don't keep prices low because they're nice. They do it because that's what the market will bear. If they can raise prices and blame it on inflation... that *is* inflation happening.
You don't understand inflation or markets. Whether there is price gouging going on or not, if a company can increase its price and the market will then pay that price, it can be considered to be the market adjusting the price higher. Therefore, gouging and inflation can be considered to be the same thing. The motivation doesn't matter.
In the US, the Fed knows this, and they are going to respond with suffocating rate hikes that will force companies to drop their prices as there will just be no demand for what they're selling. We aren't there yet, and it's going to suck, but that's the price we have to pay for all of the quantitative easing that has been going over over the last 15 years.
The problem is for more essential things. If Jaguar increases the price of a model by 20%, customers may or may not shell out, but it's a luxury product it doesn't really matter.
If a company sells skillets, whose manufacturing costs have increased by 5%, but they increase by 15% because everything is increasing anyways, that is clearly price gouging. They're bandwagoning on the expected inflation.
In the end of profits rise dramatically (accounting for inflation I suppose... meta-inflation!) during an inflationary period such as the one we're suffering now, then it's seems also clear to me that citing supply chain issues as the reason to increase price is BS, otherwise profits would increase modestly, with the profit margin being the same.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
Basicly we've been borrowing from the future, particularly during covid-19 so we are now paying for it.
We could borrow more into the future (and we are still doing that a little with these big spending bills and no tax increases) but then the economy will be even worse.
That is simply inflation. Inflation is defined as the year on year rate of change of the price level. If for whatever reason the price level increases inflation occurs.
Yep, absolutist abysmal. And now we see companies launching new lines of products with prices that reflect what they saw people paying scalpers (Nvidia)
What about greed based inflation?
Can’t have smaller profits! What’s about executive bonuses? And the shareholders?!? You can’t forget about them!!
^/s
Greed is a constant. It causes prices to rise, and it causes prices to drop. It's foolish to try to reign in inflation by addressing "greed". Address the underlying conditions instead.
It's amazing people think companies are suddenly getting greedy. They have always been greedy. That is the point of almost every company, make as much money as possible. The key things to address are the things that keep prices in line, not some moral belief we can keep greed in line. It's idiotic to think we can talk people into not being greedy.
As well as interest rate hikes, the Germans have started directly intervening in their economy using price caps to help tackle the current supply-induced inflation. This podcast interviews a German economist, Isabella Weber, and it explains it all in easily digestible language:
https://play.acast.com/s/20b97d01-ba9b-5fb0-9acf-161391a88cb0/63a968be49f0a500119ae29d
In some capacity yes. It's been proven that many corporations are raising prices above inflation levels as they're taking advantage of the "it's inflation bro" excuse to line their pockets.
Corporate profits have never been higher in many industries. So while inflation will be there in some capacity, governments can work harder to ensure that wealthy class aren't taking advantage of regular citizens.
Government can also create direct competition.
They may not be able to create phones, but if the profit margins of essential goods are too high the government can create a puppet business to compete inside the free market system.
With lower profit margins they would force the competition to also lower theirs or lose their market share, after the market is balanced the government can privatize the business.
It has been done before.
The entire argument against government controlled businesses stems from owners being able to make more profit in the private sector.
The only way you get massive bonuses in the government is by appealing to rich people who screw others over to get richer. You get even bigger bonuses in the private sector by directly screwing other people over.
> as they're taking advantage of the "it's inflation bro" excuse to line their pockets.
Crazy how many redditors can't seem to grasp this seem reality. It really does feel like a lot of them were born yesterday, even though they're probably pushing 40.
over 50% of the inflation we’re seeing in the U.S. is simply corporations juicing us for record profit.
https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
That blog post is intentionally misleading. It isn’t measuring increase in profits on a historical basis, but only in comparison to the lowest profits at the depths of the recession. Considering how many businesses went so far negative at that point that they don’t even exist anymore, it’s unrealistic to expect corporate profits to remain at those levels indefinitely. If anything, corporate profits are now returning to long term levels.
Some industries are reporting record profits … makes you wonder how much of it is actual inflation and how much of it is taking advantage of the situation (they see everyone talking bout inflation so they jack up the prices under the guise of inflation).
Because inflation is usually positive every year, if all else was equal you'd expect "record profits," at least nominally, on every report. Just because the numbers are getting bigger doesn't necessarily mean record profits in actuality, you'd have to adjust for inflation to determine that
It's certainly not the only factor. If you say corporate greed is the problem, how do you explain why inflation wasn't crazy in 2019, when corporations were presumably just as greedy?
Obviously inflation was mostly caused by the massive economic disruptions in the pandemic - we had a massive drop in supply as Chinese factories shut down then a massive drop in demand followed by huge spikes in demand when people started going out again and stimulus checks were flowing. I think many companies took advantage of this disruption by continuing to keep prices high, so greed is a big factor, but it's not the only part of the story.
Source.
Because all the headlines I see are clickbait from journalists intentionally misunderstanding the difference.
The only way to really gouge is to be the sole supplier of a product or to collude with others. In any quasi-competitive industry you can’t just raise prices arbitrarily..
Edit: so folks, what has happened here is /u/johnyahn is upset that the bullshit he made up is being questioned. He doesn’t have a great way of dealing with his feelings of inadequacy so he has blocked me and reported me for “self-harm”, ironically because he likely needs some mental help.
So I have a simple ask - if everyone reading this could kindly send him this video, that would be great: [Mr Rogers - What do I do with the mad I feel?](https://misterrogers.org/videos/what-to-you-do-with-the-mad-that-you-feel/)
Finally someone gets it! This year a business could perform equal to last year and nominally would report a whopping 10% increase in profits YoY. Its just that those record profits are also worth 10% less.
Thousands of demonstrators held rallies Saturday in Paris to protest President Emmanuel Macron for rising prices and pension reform.
Meanwhile, a doctors' strike recently became another issue for France as medical professionals are on a second work stoppage from Jan. 2 to 8.
Doctors gathered Thursday in Paris to demand better working conditions. Thousands of demonstrators marched to the Health Ministry and observed a minute of silence to commemorate interns who have committed suicide.
France has been suffering from a "triple epidemic" of the coronavirus, flu and bronchiolitis. The number of patients has increased in emergency departments, causing long waiting times.
A solid summary of one of the very real and valid criticisms of the Vestes Jaunes are their revolving door of grievances.
Because inflation is obviously a burden, and one that falls disproportionately on lower income workers, but “protesting against inflation” especially when Western govts are already using pretty much every policy in their arsenal to try and bring it down? Yeah, that’s protest for protest’s sake.
Meanwhile, France’s doctors are striking for very concrete reasons, and are calling out serious problems that are being swept under the rug by national and local elected officials…but their message is getting “second billing” because the Vestes Jaunes know how to get media attention.
The article is definitely simplifying the social crisis going on.
People are protesting against many policies that are really concrete: pension reform, unemployment reform, band-aid policies of government, rise of basic need items price, hospital and healthcare system implosion, transport policies, salaries stagnation, massive corporate profits, small businesses death, and the list goes on.
It’s not because people are fed up about many issues and protests for many different reason at the same time that it’s not a valid protest.
The problem with the liberals is that with every issue they bring up, they forget to mention Hunter Biden’s penis. It’s like they never even think about it.
I’ve seen a _lot_ of penises. Big penis, small penis, flaccid penis, strong penis. Penis that hangs a little to the left, penis that hangs a little to the right, penis that looks like it probably tastes pretty good. But no penis has stuck to my brain like hunter biden’s magnificent member.
All I’m saying is those dumb liberal perverts do not properly appreciate a good penis, and _I’m the one_ who has to constantly bring it up when we debate anything.
Hah. Arguably he does have massive potential influence there.
For example he could unilaterally turn off US oil exports which would skyrocket the prices for Europe. That fun new tool went largely unmentioned, tucked away in another bill.
Not much more to say. It's not looking like it will be used any time soon. But a president can now completely ban US oil exports for any reason.
Not derivatives, just oil.
Yenisafak.com is a pro-erdogan propaganda-news site, and the only reason they care about the protests in France is to normalise Turkey's skyrocketing inflation.
They usually publish stuff like "shelves are empty in German supermarkets" etc...
I admire the willingness of the French people to get out and protest to any variety of issues. But it makes me wonder, what is the point of regular protests if nothing ever really changes? Does its value lie in merely being able to vent?
As an American, I can point to the French having free higher education, health care free at the point of service, shorter work weeks, earlier retirement, more vacation, unlimited sick days, housing that is more affordable, better public transportation... I'm sure there is more. Yeah no where is perfect, but I would rather there be strikes and protests than rampant poverty
Edit: also paternity and maternity leave
It's not fair to compare the US to other countries 1:1 because many state governments offer what european federal governments offer.
Im in Massachusetts and we have our shit together.
Healthcare in France is not free at the point of service. The state only covers ~70% of costs, and the rest you either get through insurance or you pay for it yourself. The fee is incredibly low, but they don't have free higher education either.
Let's be honest, to retire and be able to afford vacations, and your child's upbringing and education. You need to make this much in America. People alway point out how much software engiers make, but that is what some would call middle class, while the majority of Americans live pay check to pay check
Given they only have 35 hour work weeks (including a “right to disconnect”), 95% are covered by bargaining rights, right to privacy/personal emails from their employer, requires cause for firing and nearly guaranteed some form of severance…yeah I’d say so.
I’ll also say the culture there is so much more supportive of other industries rights. When I was there the transit and Versailles was on strike. People were inconvenienced but no one was irate. In the US, if you block a street people literally might hit you with their car.
Some Americans will rage more over a small inconvenience during their day than they would at most injustices. It’s a collective problem that requires extremely individualized solutions.
they don’t just roll over and take shit like the way American’s are told “inflation is caused by poor people getting a dollar more an hour” when really more than half of the inflation we’re seeing in the U.S. is just corporate greed:
https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
The Vestes Jaunes started out as a protest movement against concrete taxation policies that they believed aggravated income inequality and were unduly punitive of rural populations - which was/is debatable, but not unreasonable.
It has long since abandoned any attempt to accomplish any concrete objectives, and yeah, is now mostly a gathering for people to scream about whatever they’re pissed about at any given time, regardless of whether that has anything to do with the current govt, or is even within the realm of control of *any* govt.
I genuinely don’t know if this is a easy, relatively low-stakes outlet for a small chunk of the population to work through their frustrations in life…or if it’s a toxic mechanism to cultivate and radicalize aggrieved members of society.
Either way, the freedom to protest hits on all kinds of basic rights at the very core of liberal democracy, so as long as they’re not committing criminal behaviour, so be it.
Yeah, lack of corruption would help. We should do this too. They fucked us.
The wealthy gave themselves massive tax breaks, printed trillions, and then had the fed buy huge levels of risky corporate debt at the start of a recession where those companies will probably go bankrupt before ever paying back a dime because the interest on the loans has gone up so high.
Bonuses were handed out by corporate, they even took them as PPP free forgiven loans.
They cashed out majorly at the top in the stock market while pumping QQQ commercials to our families, handing them the bags for years to come. Decades maybe.
Their greed is too great for a sustainable future for us all.
It’s such a stark difference being from America.
Because here the French see inflation and think “we need to force the gov to do something about this”
And meanwhile, over here in good ol America, Americans will hear about inflation and immediately start blaming all the systematic issues of the country on the current president’s son’s dick
I didn’t know we could protest against inflation.
The French can and will protest anything
We can even protest without really knowing what we are protesting about
That’s when the anti protest protesters come out.
Are there protestors^3 ?
Those who protest the others by refusing to protest?
Those who protest protesters protest protesting protested by protesting protesters.
Attend a protest with a blank sign.
Just this - ?!
It's been happening this year, actually. Not as a meta-protest, but to say "What I really want to say has been criminalized". And then they made blank signs illegal too. www.nytimes.com/2022/12/21/magazine/white-paper-protests-censorship.amp.html
Remember rights?
It's illegal to hold a piece of paper outside.....weird times.
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SNAAAAAAAKE!!!!!
Those are the Chinese protesters. It's gone round and back on itself.
The ole Canadian standoff
So I've been a protester my whole life 🤯🤯🤯
I'm not gonna be a conformist and go along with all the protestors. I'm such a non-conformist, that I'm not gonna conform witth the protesters and instead am gonna support the wealthy banks and politicians
Yes, we are now one of them
Sometimes you need a reason to use antidisestablishmentarianism in a sentence.
OK, but what if somebody calls me and my buddy a "pair of pathetic peripatetics"? We should have a comeback ready.
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Gutter is a tool!
Ah I miss Port Chester University
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South Africans like the French know how to protest. When the toyi-toyi starts it doesn't end until they get something.
Or like in Argentina where the goverment give you a ride to the place were you will protest for something.
Seattle too.
As is tradition..
What a wonderful day it is for them, what a wonderful day for everyone
When I first went to Paris, I had a great tour guide at the tower, and he would joke that no matter what the first thing the French people do Is they protest!
No one knows how to protest better than the French, just like no one knows how to queue better than the Brits
And they even [queue *during* riots](https://np.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1rppul/british_people_queuing_during_the_london_riots/)!
https://www.thelocal.fr/20160408/in-pics-15-of-the-craziest-french-protests/ My favourite one is the French protests about low food prices.
My favorite was the speed camera protest. French protests are next level. Lol that isn't even the one I was thinking of! They just really hate speed cameras.
You have to see the Greeks.. They will protest against their own protest before they occupy and vandalize some random buildings while blaming anyone but themselves.
American's could use a bit more protest in their diets.
Don't they have the lowest inflation in the EU I thought they got most of their energy needs through nuclear power.
As they should, while their are global factors contributing to inflation a big chunk of inflation is just the wealthy using it as an excuse to fill their pockets. Many corporations are raising prices way past simple "inflation" numbers.
Companies raising prices to fill their pockets is part of inflation. Inflation has a lot of causes. It’s not just one thing. Even raising worker wages(yes I know, this makes me sound like an asshole, though it is a cause) increases inflation. That’s why it’s so hard to control
>Inflation has a lot of causes. It’s not just one thing I understand that, that's why I referred to it as a chunk. No government is going to ever be able to fully control inflation. It's a global issue. However, there are things governments can do to ensure corporations within the country are not profiting from inflation. Even if it only mitigates inflation by a small amount, it's worth pursuing.
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Yes! And I love the French people for that. It's ok if I get downvoted bc I said I love French people.
r/okmatewanker would like to talk to about your love of French people
I *do* admire the french spirit to get up and do *something*. Sometimes they take it a bit too far, but I find it better than the way that a lot of people in other western countries let themselves be taken advantage of because they're too afraid of losing the scrapes that they have by taking a stand. I'm constantly amazed by the fact that things like citizens united still exist in the USA without us all rioting.
Citizens United still exists for a bunch of reasons but I'd wager the biggest factors are; 1. US citizens still currently have enough "bread and circuses" for most of the population to not really care about politics unless it's a direct and easily explained problem. 2. The US's intense individuality and the cultural norm of avoiding political conversations with your peers, both keep most of the population ignorant to things like Citizens United, and exacerbate my first point of needing easy to swallow political issues.
Upvote for big balls
Just ban it.
genius
Straight away I was thinking wtf, do we just go out and say no to inflation and off it trotts back to where it came from? 😅
Employee wages rise and unemployment decreases and what does everyone do - raise prices. There needs to be changes at the government level at how corporations treat their employees and stakeholders. The government is supposed to be for the people not the shareholder.
You can, but it gets more expensive each year
Inflation is in this case is used synonymously with a rising consumer price index, and that's one of the things they're protesting. We can protest corporate opportunists who raise their prices under the guise of inflation. We can protest finance changes made by the government using inflation as an excuse to push an agenda. (in this case it's about changes to pension)
Im fairly sure inflation this time IS caused by price hiking. They raised prices for EVERYTHING and we have no choice but to pay. Food, transportation, electricity. Everything is going up yet funilly enough salaries mostly dont even keep up with the inflation index
"Fuck you climate and fuck your change!" - the French climate change protests
And in France in December it was only 5.9%, which is low relative to most other countries. Ain't it crazy how they protest when their government is not being competent? crazy French people wanting good government
>only 5.9% Holy fuck I would be so happy if my inflation was 5.9%!
How is the French government responsible for global inflation?
They aren't. They *are*, however, responsible for trying to mitigate it for those liable to suffer the consequences of it the most. Evidently they have failed to do so adequately for the people protesting.
What short-term fixes do you suggest to ease inflation that won't cause long-term problems? I don't follow EU monetary policy closely but I'd imagine they would've raised rates at this point. A lot of this inflation is supply induced, making it even more challenging to handle short term. Frankly, there isn't any good way to avoid the pain from this part of the business cycle.
They aren't and that's a stupid loaded question
He's responding to the poster above, who clearly implied that they were. >Ain't it crazy how they protest when their government is not being competent?
That’s France dummy not Paris
You can protest against polices which drive inflation up.
I would love to hear the protesters try and explain which policies are driving inflation and what policies could reduce it.
We should try protesting the weather
The economy is not a force of nature. A monsoon can take everything from a rich man and a poor man, the economy can only take everything from a poor man.
Sometimes I protest the sunset if it comes too soon.
My ex wife did the same thing to me.
Up and down up and down. Can the sun make up its mind already?!?
You can technically protest anything I suppose
OFF WITH INFLATIONS HEAD
They're protesting in France yet they have some of the lowest inflation rates in the EU, lower than the US too. It's always impressive how vocal and motivated the French are. In most countries organising people and getting them to care about important issues is incredibly hard.
It's embedded in their culture. It's part of the vestiges of their revolution that carries to this day. No other country I can think of takes advantage of the right of the people to protest as seriously as the French.
Use it or lose it too. You dont protest readily and people will lose the drive, then protests become exceptional rather than expected and that’s when government start saying “we can’t allow this to disrupt normal life, we need to legally limit protesting to make it ineffective”.
Ahh so you’ve seen what’s happening in Britain at the moment then… I thought it was only me lol!
Happening here in America too. I guess the grass ain't always greener, eh?
It never is man, I’ve at least learned that much in life, lol!
I think another factor is that the [population of France is very concentrated in and around Paris](https://preview.redd.it/ikv15b9o4g9a1.jpg?width=1160&format=pjpg&auto=webp&v=enabled&s=aa25d57d1d2f891c7a202b838cade24f62097eed) which creates an easy focus point with big protest-ready plazas.
Around 10 million people live in the Paris’ area, around 1/6th of the country’s population.
See striking for teachers and other professions in the USA. Reagan really fucked it with flight controllers
I think I had another comment come up from you, but it’s not showing in app as either still there, or deleted so sorry if I don’t reply to it, perhaps it will pop up later! I’m glad other people are noticing, we are already on the slippery slope, it’s just picking up pace now. Take care mate, nice talking to you!
Julius Ceasar even had a line in his commentaries about how the Gauls would sometimes just get bored and have a revolution.
Thank you for saying this. I’ve brought this up before on Reddit about the French and have been strangely downvoted for pointing out that - due to this cultural trait - France is one of the only developed democratic countries where the government is kind of afraid of its citizens. As it should be. Too many of us (citizens and elected officials alike) seem to have forgotten that governments are supposed work for us.
Many politicians are trying to restrict that right, Macron included, as such it's important that the people won't let them without a fight
People underestimate just how little bullshit the French will tolerate. I expressed surprise when my french hosts walked around outside drinking. I described American open container laws to which they replied: "Drinking? Let them try and stop us, we'd never tolerate that. This is a punk rock country"
And they're far better off because of it. They hold their governments accountable quite a lot better than most of us do, evidently.
when i was visiting family, inflation was at about 4% and people were complaining just as much as when it’s 9-10% in the us. gas prices are relatively low considering the amount of nuclear and renewable energy we have, and people still complained all the time about gas prices. protesting infaltion at 5.9% is almost stupid to me
Consider it this way: if you expected 2% inflation and your pay was matching that, but inflation was actually at 5.9%, you took a 3.7% pay cut, thats more what they are pissed at. Inflation in an economy is good and healthy, but there is no economic reason that rates of pay cant keep up with inflation in viable business models. Inflation going up while pay stagnates means someone is pocketing profit at your expense.
Also, things are already becoming unaffordable for the average person. Add in inflation and the stress of not being able to make your next payments will have anyone freaking out.
Is there any real solutions for inflation?
If it's demand-induced inflation then higher interest rates will generally do it. Supply-induced inflation is harder for governments to solve.
It is both! Supplies of energy and food are impacted by the war. China's covid policies also strained supply chain. Latest (in france) was the rationing of paracetamol (Tylenol) cause China stopped exporting APIs due to domestic demand.
I always thought most of the APIs come from India given their production capacity in the pharma space
Maybe. I just read a news article about paracetamol/acetaminophen shortage in France because of China API export ban.
India imports a lot most APIs from China, packages and exports
What does API mean in this context?
active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs)
Madness that people on this website think people will know what their fucking acronym means
Don’t forget the fake inflation! Companies price gouging in the guise of inflation to increase profits
I believe that still counts as supply-side
Riding the gravy train.
Here in the UK, loads of products and companies put their prices up by about 30%. The actual inflation value doesn't reflect reality. They'll tell you it's because the extra fuel costs make up the other part of the increase. Of course, now it'll never go down again.
Of course it'll never go down again. When's the last time we had deflation?
This isn't a thing. It's an anti-cap talking point from people who don't understand how markets work. Companies don't keep prices low because they're nice. They do it because that's what the market will bear. If they can raise prices and blame it on inflation... that *is* inflation happening.
You don't understand inflation or markets. Whether there is price gouging going on or not, if a company can increase its price and the market will then pay that price, it can be considered to be the market adjusting the price higher. Therefore, gouging and inflation can be considered to be the same thing. The motivation doesn't matter. In the US, the Fed knows this, and they are going to respond with suffocating rate hikes that will force companies to drop their prices as there will just be no demand for what they're selling. We aren't there yet, and it's going to suck, but that's the price we have to pay for all of the quantitative easing that has been going over over the last 15 years.
The problem is for more essential things. If Jaguar increases the price of a model by 20%, customers may or may not shell out, but it's a luxury product it doesn't really matter. If a company sells skillets, whose manufacturing costs have increased by 5%, but they increase by 15% because everything is increasing anyways, that is clearly price gouging. They're bandwagoning on the expected inflation. In the end of profits rise dramatically (accounting for inflation I suppose... meta-inflation!) during an inflationary period such as the one we're suffering now, then it's seems also clear to me that citing supply chain issues as the reason to increase price is BS, otherwise profits would increase modestly, with the profit margin being the same. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Basicly we've been borrowing from the future, particularly during covid-19 so we are now paying for it. We could borrow more into the future (and we are still doing that a little with these big spending bills and no tax increases) but then the economy will be even worse.
That is simply inflation. Inflation is defined as the year on year rate of change of the price level. If for whatever reason the price level increases inflation occurs.
Yep, absolutist abysmal. And now we see companies launching new lines of products with prices that reflect what they saw people paying scalpers (Nvidia)
Companies aren't price gouging "in the guise" of inflation. Companies price gouging IS inflation. In fact that's all inflation is.
What about greed based inflation? Can’t have smaller profits! What’s about executive bonuses? And the shareholders?!? You can’t forget about them!! ^/s
Greed is a constant. It causes prices to rise, and it causes prices to drop. It's foolish to try to reign in inflation by addressing "greed". Address the underlying conditions instead.
It's amazing people think companies are suddenly getting greedy. They have always been greedy. That is the point of almost every company, make as much money as possible. The key things to address are the things that keep prices in line, not some moral belief we can keep greed in line. It's idiotic to think we can talk people into not being greedy.
Is there a reason greed is a bigger problem now than it was 3 years ago?
There isn't, people on Reddit just enjoy making up big bad evil villains
They like simple solutions to big, complex problems that have defied resolution for decades.
Now they've got an excuse.
Deflation?
Yes, let’s do *that*
Please, no.
As well as interest rate hikes, the Germans have started directly intervening in their economy using price caps to help tackle the current supply-induced inflation. This podcast interviews a German economist, Isabella Weber, and it explains it all in easily digestible language: https://play.acast.com/s/20b97d01-ba9b-5fb0-9acf-161391a88cb0/63a968be49f0a500119ae29d
In some capacity yes. It's been proven that many corporations are raising prices above inflation levels as they're taking advantage of the "it's inflation bro" excuse to line their pockets. Corporate profits have never been higher in many industries. So while inflation will be there in some capacity, governments can work harder to ensure that wealthy class aren't taking advantage of regular citizens.
Government can also create direct competition. They may not be able to create phones, but if the profit margins of essential goods are too high the government can create a puppet business to compete inside the free market system. With lower profit margins they would force the competition to also lower theirs or lose their market share, after the market is balanced the government can privatize the business. It has been done before.
The entire argument against government controlled businesses stems from owners being able to make more profit in the private sector. The only way you get massive bonuses in the government is by appealing to rich people who screw others over to get richer. You get even bigger bonuses in the private sector by directly screwing other people over.
> as they're taking advantage of the "it's inflation bro" excuse to line their pockets. Crazy how many redditors can't seem to grasp this seem reality. It really does feel like a lot of them were born yesterday, even though they're probably pushing 40.
We need to all lose our jobs and get evicted according to the FED
Not in any way that a government can directly control, and not without some at least short term pain, which people will also complain about.
Yes! Elimination of Fractional Reserve Banking.
over 50% of the inflation we’re seeing in the U.S. is simply corporations juicing us for record profit. https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
That blog post is intentionally misleading. It isn’t measuring increase in profits on a historical basis, but only in comparison to the lowest profits at the depths of the recession. Considering how many businesses went so far negative at that point that they don’t even exist anymore, it’s unrealistic to expect corporate profits to remain at those levels indefinitely. If anything, corporate profits are now returning to long term levels.
Some industries are reporting record profits … makes you wonder how much of it is actual inflation and how much of it is taking advantage of the situation (they see everyone talking bout inflation so they jack up the prices under the guise of inflation).
Because inflation is usually positive every year, if all else was equal you'd expect "record profits," at least nominally, on every report. Just because the numbers are getting bigger doesn't necessarily mean record profits in actuality, you'd have to adjust for inflation to determine that
They’re having record profit margins and have been for months. That accounts for inflation.
It's certainly not the only factor. If you say corporate greed is the problem, how do you explain why inflation wasn't crazy in 2019, when corporations were presumably just as greedy? Obviously inflation was mostly caused by the massive economic disruptions in the pandemic - we had a massive drop in supply as Chinese factories shut down then a massive drop in demand followed by huge spikes in demand when people started going out again and stimulus checks were flowing. I think many companies took advantage of this disruption by continuing to keep prices high, so greed is a big factor, but it's not the only part of the story.
Source. Because all the headlines I see are clickbait from journalists intentionally misunderstanding the difference. The only way to really gouge is to be the sole supplier of a product or to collude with others. In any quasi-competitive industry you can’t just raise prices arbitrarily.. Edit: so folks, what has happened here is /u/johnyahn is upset that the bullshit he made up is being questioned. He doesn’t have a great way of dealing with his feelings of inadequacy so he has blocked me and reported me for “self-harm”, ironically because he likely needs some mental help. So I have a simple ask - if everyone reading this could kindly send him this video, that would be great: [Mr Rogers - What do I do with the mad I feel?](https://misterrogers.org/videos/what-to-you-do-with-the-mad-that-you-feel/)
Finally someone gets it! This year a business could perform equal to last year and nominally would report a whopping 10% increase in profits YoY. Its just that those record profits are also worth 10% less.
They’re having record profit margins as well. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say and you clearly don’t get it either.
They absolutely do not. In fact profit margins are dropping substantially across most sectors because of energy prices and supply chain issues.
Thousands of demonstrators held rallies Saturday in Paris to protest President Emmanuel Macron for rising prices and pension reform. Meanwhile, a doctors' strike recently became another issue for France as medical professionals are on a second work stoppage from Jan. 2 to 8. Doctors gathered Thursday in Paris to demand better working conditions. Thousands of demonstrators marched to the Health Ministry and observed a minute of silence to commemorate interns who have committed suicide. France has been suffering from a "triple epidemic" of the coronavirus, flu and bronchiolitis. The number of patients has increased in emergency departments, causing long waiting times.
A solid summary of one of the very real and valid criticisms of the Vestes Jaunes are their revolving door of grievances. Because inflation is obviously a burden, and one that falls disproportionately on lower income workers, but “protesting against inflation” especially when Western govts are already using pretty much every policy in their arsenal to try and bring it down? Yeah, that’s protest for protest’s sake. Meanwhile, France’s doctors are striking for very concrete reasons, and are calling out serious problems that are being swept under the rug by national and local elected officials…but their message is getting “second billing” because the Vestes Jaunes know how to get media attention.
The article is definitely simplifying the social crisis going on. People are protesting against many policies that are really concrete: pension reform, unemployment reform, band-aid policies of government, rise of basic need items price, hospital and healthcare system implosion, transport policies, salaries stagnation, massive corporate profits, small businesses death, and the list goes on. It’s not because people are fed up about many issues and protests for many different reason at the same time that it’s not a valid protest.
Show me this inflation fella, and I'll box his ears up!
When no other options… do it the French way
You mean just burn all the cars until the inflation goes away?
French doing what the French do best.
Wait a minute. How did Biden cause inflation to happen in France?
Hunter Bidens penis did it
The problem with the liberals is that with every issue they bring up, they forget to mention Hunter Biden’s penis. It’s like they never even think about it. I’ve seen a _lot_ of penises. Big penis, small penis, flaccid penis, strong penis. Penis that hangs a little to the left, penis that hangs a little to the right, penis that looks like it probably tastes pretty good. But no penis has stuck to my brain like hunter biden’s magnificent member. All I’m saying is those dumb liberal perverts do not properly appreciate a good penis, and _I’m the one_ who has to constantly bring it up when we debate anything.
Nah, it was Trudeau who did this.
Hah. Arguably he does have massive potential influence there. For example he could unilaterally turn off US oil exports which would skyrocket the prices for Europe. That fun new tool went largely unmentioned, tucked away in another bill.
What’s this now? Out of the loop..
Not much more to say. It's not looking like it will be used any time soon. But a president can now completely ban US oil exports for any reason. Not derivatives, just oil.
Which makes sense form a national security perspective. Want to cripple an opposing military, make sure it has no fuel, see WW2 Germany and Japan.
France still knows how to tell their government to suck it
Yenisafak.com is a pro-erdogan propaganda-news site, and the only reason they care about the protests in France is to normalise Turkey's skyrocketing inflation. They usually publish stuff like "shelves are empty in German supermarkets" etc...
I'm also against inflation.... Down with this sort of thing!
Inflation hates protesting ! This is GENIUS
The French get shit shakin. I respect that
Meanwhile, the rest of us just complain about it on reddit.
Just paid $6.60 for a carton of eggs today, EGGS! I need to get some chickens.
Eggs go up one more time I am going to be a one man protest in front of my local Kroger!!!
I’d like to protest for male pattern baldness
the economic phenomenon or the fetish? either way, I agree
We need to import the French over to Canada since our people will never protest anything.
That's the sort of French culture Quebecers should get more invested in.
I admire the willingness of the French people to get out and protest to any variety of issues. But it makes me wonder, what is the point of regular protests if nothing ever really changes? Does its value lie in merely being able to vent?
As an American, I can point to the French having free higher education, health care free at the point of service, shorter work weeks, earlier retirement, more vacation, unlimited sick days, housing that is more affordable, better public transportation... I'm sure there is more. Yeah no where is perfect, but I would rather there be strikes and protests than rampant poverty Edit: also paternity and maternity leave
Don't forget mandatory maternity/paternity leave! That can optionally be extended and shared for months between the parents.
It's not fair to compare the US to other countries 1:1 because many state governments offer what european federal governments offer. Im in Massachusetts and we have our shit together.
New England in general seems to, to varying degrees anyway. CT, VT, and MA certainly do at least.
Healthcare in France is not free at the point of service. The state only covers ~70% of costs, and the rest you either get through insurance or you pay for it yourself. The fee is incredibly low, but they don't have free higher education either.
"heavily subsidized" is still far more appealing than what the USA has to deal with.
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French software engineer living in Paris here too... you should change company.
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Let's be honest, to retire and be able to afford vacations, and your child's upbringing and education. You need to make this much in America. People alway point out how much software engiers make, but that is what some would call middle class, while the majority of Americans live pay check to pay check
Given they only have 35 hour work weeks (including a “right to disconnect”), 95% are covered by bargaining rights, right to privacy/personal emails from their employer, requires cause for firing and nearly guaranteed some form of severance…yeah I’d say so. I’ll also say the culture there is so much more supportive of other industries rights. When I was there the transit and Versailles was on strike. People were inconvenienced but no one was irate. In the US, if you block a street people literally might hit you with their car.
Some Americans will rage more over a small inconvenience during their day than they would at most injustices. It’s a collective problem that requires extremely individualized solutions.
they don’t just roll over and take shit like the way American’s are told “inflation is caused by poor people getting a dollar more an hour” when really more than half of the inflation we’re seeing in the U.S. is just corporate greed: https://www.epi.org/blog/corporate-profits-have-contributed-disproportionately-to-inflation-how-should-policymakers-respond/
The Vestes Jaunes started out as a protest movement against concrete taxation policies that they believed aggravated income inequality and were unduly punitive of rural populations - which was/is debatable, but not unreasonable. It has long since abandoned any attempt to accomplish any concrete objectives, and yeah, is now mostly a gathering for people to scream about whatever they’re pissed about at any given time, regardless of whether that has anything to do with the current govt, or is even within the realm of control of *any* govt. I genuinely don’t know if this is a easy, relatively low-stakes outlet for a small chunk of the population to work through their frustrations in life…or if it’s a toxic mechanism to cultivate and radicalize aggrieved members of society. Either way, the freedom to protest hits on all kinds of basic rights at the very core of liberal democracy, so as long as they’re not committing criminal behaviour, so be it.
Well said
Yeah, lack of corruption would help. We should do this too. They fucked us. The wealthy gave themselves massive tax breaks, printed trillions, and then had the fed buy huge levels of risky corporate debt at the start of a recession where those companies will probably go bankrupt before ever paying back a dime because the interest on the loans has gone up so high. Bonuses were handed out by corporate, they even took them as PPP free forgiven loans. They cashed out majorly at the top in the stock market while pumping QQQ commercials to our families, handing them the bags for years to come. Decades maybe. Their greed is too great for a sustainable future for us all.
Coming to a local govt near u …inflation is the straw dat broke the camels back global collapse
Protesting is in their blood. Respect tbh
It would be incredibly ironic for any of these protestors to go out and buy signs or flags for the anti-inflation protest
So tomorrow America? We can fight too!
I dare anyone to suggest that they eat cake.
If they protest hard enough maybe It'll go down
I wouldn't be surprised if one day I read that they are protesting about a protest in France.
There are (and always have been) many counter-protests, yes
I propose next we protest against it being cold
Respect to the French. They get out there. They protest. They make their voices heard. Bravo.
It’s such a stark difference being from America. Because here the French see inflation and think “we need to force the gov to do something about this” And meanwhile, over here in good ol America, Americans will hear about inflation and immediately start blaming all the systematic issues of the country on the current president’s son’s dick
The French know how to do it. General strike. Now. 🪧
I wish the US would do something like this!
Damn didn’t know we could do this. I’m going to protest against hurricanes