Modern-day protest movements, from Occupy Wall Street to France’s Yellow Vests, are interconnected globally and based on the people’s ire over trickle-down economics, independent journalist Paul Moreira tells RT.

“From Occupy Wall Street to rallies in Paris, the protest movements worldwide are interconnected. They’re connected because they come at a historical moment of truth giving birth to super-polarized societies [for which] trickle-down economics doesn’t work and everybody is opening their eyes about that worldwide,” Moreira told RT’s Keiser Report. Trickle-down economists claim that tax breaks and benefits for corporations are good for the economy in the long run, as investors, savers, and company owners are the true drivers of growth.

The independent journalist, who’s been in the midst of the Yellow Vest protests in France since day one, claims that what started as a protest over gasoline prices eventually grew into a movement of people demanding – perhaps not entirely consciously – a major change in the way France’s economy is run.

“They were rebelling against the price of the gasoline – it was the starting point. And then it built up on inequality,” he said, adding that behind the “spectacular frontline” where people clashed with police, there were “clusters of people talking mostly about tax inequality.” And this “free talk” means there’s greater public discontent brewing.

“People talking is always the sign of genuine insurgency movements. In the midst of the protest it felt like the French revolution must have been like this. I don’t know if it’s conscious in the people’s heads. There is this mix of politics, vulgarity, anger, something that is not controllable and it could go either way,” he said.

Given the extent of the public anger, Moreira believes the measures the French government has taken to calm the protests will not be enough in the long run, and the entire economic system must undergo drastic changes.

“Macron introduced a $25-billion stimulus recently. They got some more money but… the structural problems remain. You can’t change the life of people stuck in a faraway region with a €100 bonus,” he said.

“Something has changed forever in the minds of the French people.”

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