The Yellow Vest movement that swept through Paris is further proof that European governments have lost touch with the proletariat who slip from wage-labour to slave-labour as austerity squeezes lower income households and struggling families.  

Quite simply the French government composed privileged policies to tackle climate change but they are not doing what’s best for their people. The change to renewables must be incentivised, governments must invest in the change through capital expenditure, not punish the average worker by pushing carbon taxes on people that have no choice or say in how they travel.

Similar to the water protests dividing public opinion in Ireland, the desire for a positive outcome is not enough to win over the will of the people, in particular when it comes at a significant cost to lower income households.

The yellow vest protests have no real ideology; opportunists from the left, right, and alt-right have all taken to the streets in anger, violence and anarchy. The movement has no leader and has made no demands. Common themes of insecurity towards immigration and hostility towards austerity are some of the reasons protesters took to the streets but it’s hard to tell who’s fighting for what and who will benefit in the end. Some call for lower taxes, while others call for higher wages, and some demand Macron’s head on a plate and further calls for Frexit.

Through the chaos Macron must decide if it’s time to support worker’s rights and decent wages or feed fuel to the alt-right fire through police violence. The possibility of the rise of the alt-right in France and ultimately a Frexit nightmare should be good enough reason for the government to meet with unions to put an end to this melting pot of uncertainty.
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Ireland will be paying close attention to the outcome of the Paris riots, as the recent housing protest touched on some of the deep feeling festering across every sector of Irish society and the difficulties experienced in accessing accommodation. As the housing crisis deepens you can imagine it’s only a matter of time before the situation boils over. 

The most unethical theft is conducted by people who have superior knowledge over their victims and easily manipulate them into handing over their money. The Irish Government is proving to be the master of all con artists in this sense.

I write this more for the sake of posterity as I feel it will fall on deaf years, but maybe one day you will think on this and see how misrepresented we are as a people, and sadly how incapable we are to see through the actions of those in power.

My memory of USC was that it was introduced to foot the deficit caused by the Banking Crisis and by its very nature was the most unpopular taxation measure in my lifetime. Brian Cowen even expressed that he believes the introduction of USC was the reason Fianna Fail lost 51 seats in the 2011 election:

“I actually believe the USC cleaned us: the USC cleaned us in Dublin. I think the USC cost us between 10 and 15 seats,” Brian Cowen

The FG/FF government now plan to merge USC with PRSI. They tell us that this is a good thing because we will have access to more benefits for the same value of tax we already pay.

Of course this will be the greatest swindle of 2018, although you may benefit slightly, and bear in mind it will be ever so slightly, the real cost will be that you continue to pay while others get a break. Collectively we will all continue to pay, the crime in that is that we will not all continue to pay equally.

Currently  people who earn more than €70,444 a year are set to pay USC @ 8% and PRSI which is capped @ 4%. This means they pay a flat tax of 12% on gross earnings. After the merge high earners will be paying as little as 4% if the cap remains the same. The merge with PRSI will mean higher income earners will have vastly more spending power, potentially benefiting from a tax break of 8%. It is high earners who will benefit most. Meanwhile that lost tax will be made up collectively by the ordinary Joe and collectively we end up with less, and like every short term memory in Irish politics the mistake of eliminating USC will be forgotten about in one or two terms time.

This is simply far removed from the burden sharing election promises Fine Gael made to us in 2011. I would go so far as to say that it is theft from the working class, who will end up paying more of Ireland's debt in the long run and have fewer benefits as a result of lost revenue following the proposed merge.

"The USC is a far bigger issue than water charges. People working hard for a living are feeling victimised by our tax system" Fine Gael TD John Deasy

The left is often cited as calling for an introduction of so called wealth taxes, but what’s hidden in the cracks is how the neoliberals constantly erode our ability to sustain equitable taxes on the wealthy. It’s not a burden on someone who has more to pay more. Equality is the only reasonable way to support a democracy. USC doesn’t need to be merged with PRSI at this stage, what we need is a USC that doesn’t penalise low income workers, but one that remains in place for the top earners in society.

Of course the tax system is inevitably corrupt because USC impacts on the wages of politicians and their contributors, a TD’s basic salary being €89,965 a year. Which means politicians will benefit from this merge, so we’re being sold something which hurts us in the long run by the people it benefits most.

​We, the public, are at a disposition to understand how much of an opportunity USC presents in working towards an equitable tax system. We don’t need to introduce a wealth tax, we just need to keep Lenihan’s Legacy in place and use it to our advantage, while making it fairer for those who earn less.

The politicians are acting out of self interest when they suggest a merge, and this my friend is nothing but a con, plain and simple.

(Picture by Geraldine O’Neill)

No politician went hungry as a result of the bailout. No politician went homeless in the recovery.  It’s no wonder that politicians are completely out of touch with the needs of the people. It’s no wonder that Labour Councillor’s like Dermot Lacey  can look down on ‘Snowflakes’ from their Ivory Tower when faced with the harsh economic realities caused by the failures of the Government.

They come looking for our votes and tell us about recovery, they tell us hard choices had to be made, they tell us not to look left, not to think about how they’ve already failed us.

Your choice does not need to be manipulated by the fear they force on you. Your choice should always be for someone who will put your needs first, someone you can relate to, someone who will represent you and what you believe in.

Voting for someone who dismisses ‘Snowflakes’ for asking legitimate questions about the financial burden laid upon them by the government is nothing more than supporting a neoliberal elite who don’t have an ounce of public interest in their hearts.

When this political elite then have the audacity to ridicule the working man and boast that they have no reason to bow to us peasants, then we must remind them who we are.

The tide is turning, the choice is yours.
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