Lhe demographer Alfred Sauvy (1898-1990) wrote: “Population problems are so fundamental that they take terrible revenge on those who ignore them. » For thirty years France has known precisely the demographic impact of aging on our social systems. If the public authorities have not remained inactive, the series of parametric adjustments to our pensions (and our health) since the 1990s have always postponed structural adjustment.
This short-term policy of small steps has undermined the confidence of the population in our pension system (77% are worried about their future). A majority of French people expect a fundamental reform, including 85% of 18-24 year olds. The postponement of the legal retirement age to 65 is the measure judged most negatively by the French (69% are opposed to it). The rejection of this measure is part of a desire for long-term structural solutions, not just accounting, and consistent with the evolution of society.
The first reason is that the effective retirement age will be increasingly disconnected from the legal age with unchanged legislation. From 62.2 years today, this effective age will be close to 64 years from 2035. The legal age criterion is secondary in the decision to retire in relation to the duration of contributions to have a pension of a sufficient amount.
The second reason is linked to the increasingly late entry of current generations into the labor market, which will widen the gap in the effective retirement age between insured persons.
The lengthening of the average duration of higher education (from sixteen months in 1985 to more than thirty-five months today) will, in fact, delay the retirement age of many citizens. Knowing that there is a causality between the duration of studies and people’s standard of living, it is right that the main criterion be the duration of contributions and not the legal age. Retirement at age 60 for those who started working at age 17 should be possible without derogation.
Autonomy and freedom
The third reason is the evolution of the fundamental principles to be established in our social model of the XXIand century. The latter considers the individual as a singular being, unique and no longer anonymous, abstract. This individual has individual capacities and aspirations which must be integrated into the management of his social risks.
Autonomy and freedom are at the heart of the new model and complement the principles of the universality of rights, solidarity, social democracy and intergenerational equity. To respond to this development, only a chosen retirement system, which favors the duration of contributions over that of the legal age, responds to this new horizon.
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