{"id":1916708,"date":"2023-04-19T12:26:35","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-frances-pension-protests-mean-for-americans\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T12:29:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-19T16:29:14","slug":"what-frances-pension-protests-mean-for-americans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/what-frances-pension-protests-mean-for-americans\/","title":{"rendered":"What France\u2019s Pension Protests Mean For Americans"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwhat-frances-pension-protests-mean-for-americans%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1916708&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>As the Democrats push more spending in their new budget, Republicans in the House are having yet another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2023\/apr\/18\/kevin-mccarthy-faces-internal-gop-divisions-debt-l\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">debate about raising the debt ceiling<\/a>. The topic of the national debt tends to elicit shrugs and yawns from most Americans, but maintaining current spending levels carries enormous consequences for everyone. If anyone doubts this, they need only to look at France to see what awaits them in the near future.<\/p>\n<p>Although most of the news on France has centered around President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2023\/04\/14\/france-china-taiwan-macron-visit-europe-strategic-autonomy-trade\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recent visit to China<\/a>, there is something much more consequential happening back in his home country. For weeks now, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-europe-65279818\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">millions of Frenchmen have protested Macron\u2019s decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64<\/a>. Hundreds of them have been injured or arrested, with some clashes escalating into riots. Many unions have struck in solidarity. Even for the French, for whom protesting and striking is something of a national pastime, the situation is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/photos\/france-pension-reform-protests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">dire<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1870834529\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f58d8350256f16e3a41e81056c341b36 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f58d8350256f16e3a41e81056c341b36\"><\/div>\n<p>There are a few ways to interpret this. For most conservatives, this is yet another opportunity to deride the French who seem allergic to hard work \u2014 just seven years ago <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/20200529-french-health-workers-angry-as-reforms-threaten-famous-35-hour-working-week\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">protests erupted<\/a> after Macron considered adding a few hours to the legally mandated 35-hour week. It doesn\u2019t seem to occur to the French that retiring so early and living decades longer at the government\u2019s expense is simply unsustainable. Moreover, this problem is exacerbated by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rfi.fr\/en\/france\/20210516-french-told-to-have-more-babies-in-national-pact-to-save-society-bayrou\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">low birthrate<\/a> that will result in a dwindling number of workers supporting an increasing number of retirees.<\/p>\n<p>Those on the left have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/world-politics\/2023\/3\/24\/23655280\/france-protests-retirement-age-paris-social-security\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expressed more sympathy<\/a> for the protesters since they are forced to work more years while the wealthy aren\u2019t making any kind of sacrifice. True, the French retirement system may go insolvent at the current rate, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that Macron has to raise the retirement age. Instead, he could allocate more public funds to pensions, or he could raise taxes \u2014 at least on the wealthy since most of the French already pay <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tv-shows\/french-connections\/20210430-tax-champions-how-much-do-the-french-really-pay\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exorbitant taxes<\/a>. By raising the retirement age for employees, Macron is unfairly favoring the rich elites over the poor working class.<\/p>\n<p>Then there are critics somewhere in the populist camp \u2014 a kind of middle ground between pro-market conservatives and pro-government leftists \u2014 who\u00a0take issue with the way Macron is implementing these measures. Essentially, he circumvented any debate on the issue and forced these changes through an executive council. This kind of anti-democratic authoritarianism is becoming more common and will soon become the norm in generous welfare states going bankrupt. As writer Malcom Kyeyune <a href=\"https:\/\/compactmag.com\/article\/france-s-crisis-of-legitimacy-and-ours\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recently argued<\/a> in Compact, \u201cIf Macron senses that France is slowly becoming ungovernable without extraordinary \u2014 and politically dubious \u2014 executive measures, he probably isn\u2019t wrong, and he is far from the only Western leader to face this quandary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sadly, even though the French are understandably taking a stand once again, it\u2019s unlikely that they will prevail this time. At best, they can delay the inevitable just a little while longer, at the cost of ruining their country with ongoing strikes, riots, and vandalism. Or they can face reality, accept the change, and move on.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-32402f34b45c7e56f89fa76356e49015 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-32402f34b45c7e56f89fa76356e49015\"><\/div>\n<p>One hopes the French would finally reconsider their trust in the government and seek out an alternative, but by now, too many of them have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/immigrants-didnt-destroy-france-the-welfare-state-did\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">conditioned into abject dependency<\/a>. If Macron and his party are cutting entitlement spending, the most the French can think to do is gravitate to the politician (or more accurately, demagogue) who promises not to touch entitlements, like nationalist Marine Le Pen or socialist Jean-Luc Melenchon. As for the politicians who promise to reduce this dependency, restore freedoms, and make France great again, they will always lose. Such was the case with presidential candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericanconservative.com\/three-lessons-from-the-french-presidential-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Eric Zemmour<\/a>, who couldn\u2019t even make it to a runoff in the last election.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Parallels to the U.S.<\/h2>\n<p>Even though most Americans are tempted to treat this as a French problem, they should know this issue will be coming at them fast. American entitlement programs such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/08\/31\/business\/economy\/social-security-funding.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Social Security<\/a> and an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewtrusts.org\/en\/research-and-analysis\/articles\/2022\/07\/07\/states-unfunded-pension-liabilities-persist-as-major-long-term-challenge\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">array of public pensions<\/a> are already underfunded. Add to this devastating inflation, which will <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/01\/11\/7-reasons-high-inflation-isnt-likely-to-go-away-any-time-soon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">only continue<\/a> as the federal government continues to spend beyond its means. Most middle-class workers probably know they won\u2019t be able to live off Social Security and have some other plan for retirement, but all it would take is a market crash to ruin them. Are they ready to work another decade to avoid outright destitution?<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, there are the same demographic concerns to worry about. The old will soon outnumber the young, as more people of childbearing years opt out of having children. Furthermore, there\u2019s good reason to think these young people are <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/14\/teen-employment-isnt-exploitation-but-it-might-keep-you-from-becoming-an-unhappy-helpless-adult\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">not as interested in becoming workaholics<\/a> as many Americans today. Indeed, it\u2019s hard to blame them when older generations are <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/03\/23\/why-baby-boomers-are-the-real-snowflakes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">screwing them over<\/a> in a multitude of ways.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learn from the French<\/h2>\n<p>Fortunately, Americans may still have time to reverse course if they learn from the mistakes of the French. First and foremost, they should not trust big government or big business to take care of them. Doing so only ensures profligate spending that enriches elites, further impoverishes the middle class, and leads to a culture of dependency and laziness.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f641728f20fc992ab361f955041cc121 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-f641728f20fc992ab361f955041cc121\"><\/div>\n<p>Second, they should guard against Democrats\u2019 and deep-state encroachments on constitutional rights and democratic norms. Unlike France, where <a href=\"https:\/\/americanmind.org\/salvo\/the-party-state-media\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">state-run media<\/a> and legal censorship shut down discussion and tell people how to vote, Americans still enjoy voicing their opinions and consuming alternative media \u2014 though this is under relentless attack in the social media age. Without a legitimate public square to debate different views, Americans will be reduced to protesting out on the street and striking like the French.<\/p>\n<p>Similarly, the American constitutional system doesn\u2019t allow for an executive to unilaterally make changes to things like Social Security \u2014 just ask <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/corner\/when-im-64\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">George W. Bush<\/a> \u2014 but, again, this could change. If President Joe Biden is allowed to forgive college debt with an executive order, this also means he can take away Americans\u2019 retirement with the same mechanism.<\/p>\n<p>Third, Americans will need to restore <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/15\/until-election-integrity-issues-are-addressed-conservatives-should-not-stop-talking-about-the-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">election integrity<\/a>. Ironically, this is one area where the French do better than Americans. They don\u2019t have vote-counting machines, early voting, mail-in ballots, or ballot harvesting. By contrast, American elites and political campaigns are able to exploit these many loopholes.<\/p>\n<p>Retirement will become the issue that makes or breaks our democracy. The longer it goes unaddressed, the longer Americans will have to work before they will be able to retire. Worse still, they will have little recourse to reform a system that will force them to spend their final days on earth earning a paycheck instead of enjoying that season of life in peace.<\/p>\n<div  class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2f95205e6a3134a33b05eaee6bafd344 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2f95205e6a3134a33b05eaee6bafd344\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">\n<div class=\"article-author-description fst-italic\">   Auguste Meyrat is an English teacher in the Dallas area. He holds an MA in humanities and an MEd in educational leadership. He is the senior editor of The Everyman and has written essays for The Federalist, The American Conservative, and The Imaginative Conservative, as well as the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Follow him on <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MeyratAuguste\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/div>\n<div class=\"article-tags bdr-top-black mt-30 mt-sm-60 pt-15 pt-md-45\">\n<ul class=\"list-unstyled d-flex flex-wrap align-items-center mb-0 mx-n10 p-0\">\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/birthrate\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">birthrate<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/debt-ceiling\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">debt ceiling<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/emmanuel-macron\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Emmanuel Macron<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/eric-zemmour-2\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Eric Zemmour<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/france\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">France<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/french-protests\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">French protests<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/jean-luc-melenchon\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Jean-Luc Melenchon<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/marine-le-pen\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Marine Le Pen<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/pensions\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">pensions<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/protests\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">protests<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/retirement\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">retirement<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/social-security\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">Social Security<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/spending\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">spending<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"mt-10 mx-10\"><a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/taxes-2\/\" class=\"btn btn-black btn-small\">taxes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As the Democrats push more spending in their new budget, Republicans in the House are having yet another debate about raising the debt ceiling. The topic of the national debt tends to elicit shrugs and yawns from most Americans, but maintaining current spending levels carries enormous consequences for everyone. If anyone doubts this, they need<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":551,"featured_media":1916709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[3884,23869,8186,3970],"class_list":["post-1916708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-americans","tag-frances","tag-pension","tag-protests"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/551"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1916708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1916708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1916709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1916708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1916708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1916708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}