Politics and Money

[Elroy Jetson]

Tonight President Macron refused to reinstate the Solidarity Wealth Tax on the rich, but he agreed to a list of concessions:

1.) Macron will not remove the exemption from taxation for old-age pensions of less than €2,000 a month.

2.) He raised the Minimum Wage by €100 per month first of January;

3.) He Exempted all over-time hours from income tax;

4.) He Required all employers to pay a tax-free year-end bonus to all workers;

5.) More importantly, Macron also apologized to the nation for criticizing the Minima Sociaux, a French social welfare program which assures a minimum income for every person and family in France.

When unveiling his "economic reforms" Macron had commented "we spend crazy money on the Mimima Sociaux and no one is helped" which led to calls for an new election and resulted in the initial Gilets Jaunes protests.

Macron apologized, "For not providing a sufficiently fast and strong response for a year and a half" to the criticism of his new conservative economic program. Macron asked the nation to accept these concessions as a way to end the protests against his conservative party's economic changes.

For the past 18 months Macron had been hoping the French public would come to accept his tax cut for the wealthy while cutting benefits for workers and the poor just as American appeared to docilely accept Trump's tax cut for America's wealthiest families while losing their health insurance.

If the protests continue, Macron will likely be forced to reimpose the Solidarity Wealth Tax as the protestors demand.