In today’s world, mostly everyone, whether yellow* or golden vests, cares only about themselves; each person thinks that everything is owed to him, that all vital things must be provided to him free of charge, that no one can deprive him of extraneous items and that he even has the right to consider such items as vital.
And yet, even among the golden vests, hardly anyone considers himself to be rich; everyone sees only what he lacks; and complains of not having the means to enjoy all that he desires.
In fact, almost everywhere in the world, most vital goods (food, clothing, household equipment, public transport) are much less expensive today than it was before. Admittedly, some vital goods (housing, health, education, personal transport) remain out of reach for the poor and require solidarity between yellow and golden vests.
In addition, new goods (computers, tablets, mobile phones, video games, subscriptions to platforms) have slowly crept into the vital needs category, because no one could imagine going without these things. Consequently, spending on such item reduces the share of disposable income in order to fund other vital goods. Hence the feeling, albeit misleading, that everyone’s purchasing power has decreased, that taxes are a robbery and that public spending is a given.
However, purchasing power has not decreased. Rather, it is distributed very unequally and unjustly. And public expenditures, which are funded by taxes, are not a given for the benefit of those who are living today; public expenditure are also essential for the well-being of others, and not only for the yellow or golden vests: but for future generations.
Nonetheless, as long as we do not change our development model, today’s interests will hurt those of tomorrow: increased consumption plunders the resources of future generations. More social justice today degrades the environment. And conversely, reducing tomorrow’s greenhouse gas emissions worsen today’s injustices.
Thus, raising the carbon tax to prepare for the future is inevitably contrary to the immediate interests of those living today.
Preparing for the future can only be achieved through the detriment of cotemporaneous satisfactions and immediate desires, for both golden and yellow vests.
To overcome this contradiction, we must transition, as fast as possible, to a positive development model, whereby the well-being of today does not harm that of tomorrow. In particular, whereby ending today’s injustices do not harm the environment in the future.
All of this implies massively reducing our dependence on polluting energy sources, oil and coal; and to reduce as quickly as possible our consumption of other products that are considered today as vital, but will be recognized tomorrow as deadly, such as beef, sugar and many others. It also means shifting consumption towards immaterial rather than material goods; and, above all, to learn to discover that one can take pleasure in being selfless.
More generally, it means helping everyone (more so the yellow vests rather than the golden vests) reconcile their demands of today with those of their children, find more happiness in preparing for the future rather than taking joy in squandering the present, define their expectations of others, and decide what they are willing to do to contribute to their happiness.
It is called being positive. Positivity, in and of itself, brings happiness.
j@attali.com
*In this article, the term “yellow vest(s)” refers to the protest in France against the carbon tax increase, whereby the protesters wore yellow vests.