France is still in turmoil as more than 400,000 people marched across the country last weekend for... something. It's for "education," the young people said. That's not exactly right. In fact, it's part of an incoherent scream of rage by the young. They want more: more money for education, more money for services, more time off, more guaranteed goodies.
"Government can delay the bill for only so long," notes the Wall Street Journal. "France promised generous pensions, short workweeks and broad public services. It paid for them with high taxes and debt." When French leaders tried to bring the promises back in line with sane budgeting by making small cuts, the kids realized they were probably not going to get what their parents and grandparents got after they retired.
"Once a benefit exists, people plan their lives around it," the Journal notes. "Taking it away feels like theft, even if the math never added up."
Indeed, trying to end an entitlement in America, even a relatively new one like Obamacare, is impossible. Each entitlement sprouts tentacles that wrap themselves around Congress, the bureaucracy, and private industry to form an unbreakable chain that works to keep the spigot of federal money open and flowing.
Along with the anger, there is genuine fear among those about to retire.
“I’ve paid a huge amount into the system and should be entitled to a decent pension,” Marie Caron, 61, told the Journal. “Instead, I might end up on the streets.” Caron can't retire until she's 63 and won't collect the full pension amount until she's 66. In the meantime, she's lost her job, and the rigid French labor market won't hire anyone her age.
While American workers have long managed their own retirement portfolios to supplement a baseline Social Security check, continental Europeans were promised a comprehensive, state-guaranteed income for life.
Their pension systems are mostly pay-as-you-go, meaning that benefits are funded directly by payroll taxes. As the postwar baby-boom generation enters its 80s, there aren’t enough workers around to pay for their elders’ pensions, forcing governments to consume an ever-larger portion of national budgets to meet retirees’ entitlements.
"We call for more money to be invested in social services and education, as well as in climate protection — in short, in our future — because we are the ones who will be affected by this the longest and who will have to live with it," Berlin high school student Lara Breitenbach said, according to PBS.
It's an "investment" in only the grossest sense of the word. It's taxing Peter to pay Paul, which is not anything like an "investment." The Left loves to use that word because saying you're raising "government spending" puts too many people off. Claiming it's an "investment" sounds almost reasonable.
"At my school, the ceiling is collapsing because of water damage, nothing is being done about it, we have a shortage of teachers, the toilets are broken," said Janelle Schulz, another high school student from Berlin.
It's not just France. An entire generation is rising in Europe as the scheme those nations have been trying to outrun is finally coming apart. The nations tried boosting immigration just to get warm bodies in the factories and shops paying into the failing system. But why work when the generous welfare system will take care of you from cradle to grave? The immigrants in France and Germany, as well as Scandinavia, quickly learned how to play the game. They settled in their own communities, refused to assimilate, and eagerly took government handouts. In the end, there weren't enough of them to maintain the scheme.
As anarchy envelops France, American leaders must renew their commitment to the rule of law. Peaceful protests in France quickly morphed into violent riots. There’s a difference between the two. Looting businesses, attacking police officers and setting fire to a 143-year-old city hall aren’t legitimate forms of protest.
That line has become blurred, and not only in France. In the past several years, the George Floyd riots and the Jan. 6 riots on our soil also escalated from protest to violent mob rule and destruction. Many who agreed with the grievances justified the uprisings as constitutionally protected activity. Framing them as such undermines the value of the First Amendment.
The Constitution grants citizens a right to assemble and to “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” All members of our government took an oath to support and defend that right. But that same oath also entails enforcing law and order.
You're darn right that the unrest among the young could happen here. Unless something is done, Social Security will begin running out of money in six years. Politicians will kick the can down the road, raising the retirement age and increasing taxes as a stop-gap measure to keep the scheme going. At that point, even the densest screenhead will add one and one and realize it doesn't add up to two.
Everyone has seen this coming for the last 50 years, as birth rates plummeted and people began to live longer. Math is a cruel taskmaster, and as Social Security begins to teeter, the politics take on a desperation as political leaders don't want to be stuck when the game of musical chairs stops and there's nowhere to sit.
We can sympathize with the young. They'll have to get used to the idea that the same benefits their parents and grandparents enjoyed won't be there when they reach retirement age.
