2024-08-04 02:15:07
largePurchasing power is at the heart of the political debate in France. Promises to reduce taxes on the one hand and freeze energy prices on the other keep coming. A fatal mistake that would only make the problem worse. Instead, investing in efficiency and sobriety is the real answer.
What consumers pay is price times quantity. So there are two ways to reduce costs: play the price game, or play the quantity game. One destroys the future; the other builds it. Because falling prices will inevitably lead to a structural increase in demand, leading to worse environmental and social conditions.
If France spends 44 billion euros on fuel (according to data Department of Ecological Transformation), because they need it. This need is the result of territorial planning and social organization, which are themselves the result of faster and cheaper mobility. The price of car travel has actually continued to fall relative to purchasing power: an hour of minimum wage can buy you four times more gasoline in 2020 than in 1960 (Wisdom Academy). The general movement to encourage mobility is the same: democratized cars, a developed network of free roads, etc.
As a result, the distance traveled increased tenfold in two centuries (according toAureliano Bigot2020, Associate Fellow, Chair in Energy and Prosperity), leading to urban sprawl, semi-urbanization, decentralization; according to Carbone 4, car ownership has continued to decline, from 1.85 people per car in 1990 to 1.65 in 2015. Increased distances, “carpooling” and the number of vehicles.
Daily number of passengers: 1.43
The result: a structural increase in energy consumption. As long as prices are limited, the bills are sustainable. But when prices rise, the trap closes.
Another possibility to reduce the bill is to reduce consumption: it is a question of investing in efficiency and sobriety. Is the mobility system efficient? Is it possible to transport as many people as possible while using less fuel?
The answer is obviously yes. Let’s take the example of the car, which is a travesty of inefficiency.
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