Shouldn't the French get with the script?

The state can't afford to pay for them to play boules and drink pastis for a quarter-century

Photo by Celine Ylmz on Unsplash

On this substack, my former BBC colleague Henri Astier put up an interesting guest post on French discontent with pension policy reform. The French, he said, are wont to make a display of people power, which “is a challenge not just to elected bodies, but to the rule of law. During a recent rally a banner waved by unionists read: ‘Let’s block everything’.”

Henri’s guest post is enormously insightful if, like me, you’re wondering what on earth is wrong with the French. Why are they getting so animated that the state retirement age rose by a mere two years, to 64? After all, France’s official retirement age is still much lower than other European countries. In the UK it’s 66; in Germany and Italy it’s 67. America is only marginally better with the national retirement age set at 65, though the full retirement age is 67 for everyone born in 1960 or later.

Shouldn’t the French get with the script and accept reality? Their country just can’t afford to pay for t…