I'm not sure about this:
France's biggest problem is that its elites do not believe in themselves anymore
M Le Boucher believes in himself all right. And he believes in international, globalising capital. That's who he works for.* And that may be a problem with many of France's "elites".
Otherwise this is an appalling piece of writing. A list of grudges against environmentalists, only to end, as you point out, by saying that measures like a CO2 tax are necessary. Just as long as environmentalists have nothing to do with it.
* Would he be economics editorialist at Le Monde without neo-lib Alain Minc's influence over the newspaper?
I think we mean the same thing, mostly. French elites now believe in what the Anglo-Saxon elites believe in: money, lots of. They do not believe in what made them the elite in France: a strong sense of duty that made them work (via the State) for the common good.
The deal was: little power sharing with the masses, but a duty to conduct policies that are decent for said masses. Now they still have little accountability (thanks to the Grandes Ecoles systèmes, the preemption mechanisms, and the almost impossibility to be kicked out of the elite, etc...), but they are grabbing the money at the expense of the masses.
At least in the Anglo-Saxon countries, the elites are kicked out of political power more rapidly. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
I mean, some of the things that keep France competitive today are precisely the big things that the French technocrats built in the first half of the past 50 years: the nuclear power plants, Airbus, the TGV, a diversified industrial base (Total, St Gobain, Renault, Lafarge, Areva, EDF, the banks, Vinci, Suez, etc...), and the EU. It's not the pseudo reforms pushed over the past 25 years. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
limited means of stimulus, no more subsidies to most strategic industries, no industrial policy which runs counter to stated competition policy, no national trade policies.
no yellow headlamps. i liked those things, the glare was far less harsh when staring into them. Nil aon leigheas ar an ngra ach posadh
