French Entitlement.

DISCLAIMER: It's not very much like me, but today I need to write about my thoughts on a political matter. Over the last few weeks, it's been harder and harder for me to ignore the state of France and the various riots and protests that have spiraled out of the country due to the proposed pension reform. To be up front, the whole issue absolutely baffles me. In order to establish where it is in my understanding I am coming from, I will briefly lay out the facts as I know them.

The cause of all the unrest lies in a change to the social pension program entitled to all French citizens. Specifically, the French people are most disturbed by a change in minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. This would also affect the mandatory retirement age from 65 to 67. It is worth noting also that according to a law passed in 2008, French people are allowed to work until age 70 but only if they want to do so. The French people are upset mainly because they feel that the new reform unfairly penalizes the poor or lower-class workers. Students have also voiced concern over a more competitive job market as a result of older workers holding onto jobs for longer amounts of time. In response, workers from both the public and private sectors are on strike. This includes workers in transportation, education, justice, hospitals, media and banking. French students, much to my chagrin, are also a large part of continuing strikes and protests.

So far, protesters have managed to do some considerable damage essentially slowing France to a crawl in the face of ongoing Senate deliberations on the issue. From CNN.com:

Blockades of refineries and fuel depots have led to fuel shortages. There was no fuel left in more than a quarter of petrol pumps on Thursday, according to Agence-France Presse. This has crippled transportation and affected schools. Activists blocked access to Marseille airport for several hours before being cleared by police on Thursday. Unions are stepping up the pressure on a continuation of refinery strikes, go-slows on motorways and work stoppages at regional airports.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy claims that the measures are needed to combat rising life expectancies which increase the burden put on the pension system. He also claims that the reforms will allow France to better handle growing fiscal deficit. The French Government reports that the reforms will save 19 billion euros ($23.3 billion) by 2018.

Those are the facts as I understand them. Having considered all of this, I believe my main problem is the overwhelming sense of entitlement that permeates every report coming out of the French people. It would be one thing if the pension reforms sought in some fundamental way to change the way in which the system works. As far as I can tell, it seems that the French government is making a necessary change in order to ensure the continued workability of the system. Sarkozy himself recently said that his actions are not an effort to wreck the systems, but to prevent it from bankrupting itself in the coming years. Adding to this, the social security budget has continued to push further and further into the red year after year and a solution would have been inevitably essential. I feel like even the most ardent detractors of the pension reform would agree that something would need to be done about buffering the ability of the pension to continue aiding the people. To be fair, French labor union leaders backed by the opposition Socialist Party feel that an increase to the capital gains tax would be a more efficient solution. I'm hard pressed to see this as a stable fix though as it seems that taking more money from workers who work less and less in fewer and fewer jobs only slows the malfunction. Honestly I would almost suggest implementing both ideas as a means to solving the problem, but I imagine the uproar would be deafening. That very same uproar is the most infuriating part of the entire situation for me as I don't understand how a people who are basically getting a handout can demand that the provider of said handout acquiesce to their whim.

I already mentioned that the reforms seem to be intended as a way to buoy the system and keep it healthy, but let's consider for a moment the French world AFTER these reforms take effect in 2018 (you know, seven years from now). To start, even with a minimum retirement age of 62, France would still have a much lower age than most of its European neighbors. Listed below are the average retirement ages of most of Europe:

UK : 63
Sweden : 63
Spain : 61
Italy : 60
Germany : 60
Netherland : 58
Belgium : 57

France checks in at age 59. This is a higher number than both the Netherlands and Belgium. I find it interesting though that only 15% of French people between the ages of 60 and 65 are still working. This is the lowest percentage in all of Europe. So basically, even though they may work a little longer on average than two other countries, the French are more consistently done at that age.

The most damning point is that this relatively small two years allow the French to continue taking part of completely government provided cradle-to-grave healthcare as well as vacation guarantees, working hours and public schools that are the envy of many other countries. It seems to me like the French people want all of the benefits of a free system without wanting to think or participate in any of the work necessary to maintain it.

I have two final problems with the protesters of this reform. The first is that in their attempts to demonstrate the injustices they feel victims of, they have crippled many other French citizens who may or may not be involved. Businesses are closed, people cannot get gas, and roads are blocked basically stopping the flow of life in large portions of the country. To make matters worse the vocal opponents of this policy amount at the most liberal estimates to roughly 3.5 million people (as reported by national unions). While not an inconsiderable amount, this only accounts for 1/30th the population of the country. If you take the police estimates (1.1 million), it's only a 60th. The second problem I have is that the majority of protest pictures I have seen showcase students. Not just any students, but remarkably young students. In many cases these very same students are the ones pictured around and in the middle of the greatest outbreaks of violence. In Lyon and Nanterre, there are young demonstrators who have vandalized stores, overturned cars and clashed with riot police. I have to think that the only reason the younger demographic is even involved in such protests is to cause an uproar and engage in the zeitgeist of the political climate with or without adequate knowledge of the issues.

As Americans, I feel as though we enjoy a multitude of privileges and freedoms that many of us take for granted, but I still feel as though the pure childishness of the French people in the face of these reforms has been embarrassing. To me, it honestly sounds like a loud, nation-wide temper tantrum and I applaud the government for doing its best to ignore it all and attempt to proceed with the democratic process. Analysts predict a break in the fervor soon anyways as France is due in ten days for mandatory vacations. Nothing like mandated off-time to soothe one's soreness over being asked to work a little harder for said off-time.

I'm gonna end this with an admission that my global political awareness is not robust or greatly well-informed. I've done my best to discern the facts as clearly as possible, but I will admit to my own potential misunderstanding. This won't likely become a common topic here on this blog, but I just got a little fatigued by the newest French silliness. Here's a quote from Nicolas Sarkozy that I feel echoes many of my sentiments on the topic of this protest:

"We can't be the only country in the world where, when there's a reform, a minority wants to block everyone else. That's not possible. That's not democracy."

The Well-Informed Faces of the French "Revolution"... Sigh.