Grandstand. If purchasing power peaks in the polls, it is because a large part of the French are struggling to make ends meet. According to an October 2021 IFOP poll, only 39% of them manage to save money after paying their constrained expenses – a percentage that has fallen sharply since 2010. The middle deciles of the income distribution are so already on the wire. For the four lowest deciles, the accounts are to the nearest euro, or even to the euro cent. It is no longer a question of “power” (purchasing) as much as of “constraint” (budgetary).
Some 40% of the French population have a monthly standard of living of less than €1,582 (” Social minima and social benefits. Low-income households and redistribution », Panorama of the Drees, 2021). The National Observatory of Poverty and Social Exclusion (which in 2021 became the Scientific Committee of the National Council for the Fight against Exclusion) establishes “reference budgets” – i.e. baskets of goods and services allowing a minimal but effective participation in economic and social life: food, clothing and housing, going to work, access to hygiene and healthcare, going on holiday for one or two weeks a year, having a minimum of social, cultural and sporting life. In medium-sized towns, in 2014, it was €1,424 for a single working person (€3,284 for a couple with two children); i.e., adjusted for inflation, €1,544 today. However, the cost of living in large urban areas, particularly in the Paris region, is higher, due to real estate prices. Since the movement of “yellow vests”, the rural and “rurban” world has also appeared very marked by constrained budgets. In other words, this minimum is really a minimum in France.
Increase revenue
The “perceived poverty” measured by the DREES statisticians (19% of the population) far exceeds the monetary poverty measured by INSEE (14.6%); between 2017 and 2020, it even increased particularly among employees (from 16% to 24%) and manual workers (from 18% to 31%). In fact, the poor and precarious strata are the most affected by unemployment, precariousness, rising energy and housing prices; they have also been the most vulnerable to the Covid-19 crisis.
How do they manage, then, when revenues contract and bills increase? When the so-called “constrained” or “pre-committed” expenses (rent, telephone, etc.), but also the “income” which is only “arbitrable” in name (food, childcare, etc.), corset almost – entire budget? When you have to constantly be in self-constraint, calculation and anxiety about the end of the month?
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