Tribune. Our pay-as-you-go pension system, which emerged from the National Council of the Resistance at the end of the Second World War, has been one of the pillars of our social model for nearly four generations. It has undergone notable developments, and neoliberals as well as the most bitter capitalists have not ceased to attack it in an attempt to steer it towards private capitalization.
I also note that these are the same who attack the special regimes which in reality propose, by wanting to change the nature of our model, to establish a special regime for each French retiree.
Nevertheless, we have to recognize that the France of 2021 is no longer the France of 1945. If we must refuse the demagoguery of those who propose to return to retirement at 60 for everyone – without, moreover, apply it to themselves – we must equally reject the injustice of postponing the legal retirement age which does not take into account difficult careers, the lack of jobs for seniors, or even the revaluation of the “power to live” throughout life.
Because the question is certainly less that of working more than of living with dignity from one’s work. Some speak of the retirement age, when the urgency must focus on improving purchasing power. The time has therefore come to propose a “new social compromise”.
Election year
While 2022 will be an election year in which the French will have to make major choices for their future, faced with a socio-economic crisis, a consequence of the health crisis, but also the climate crisis, including the recent report of the Group of intergovernmental experts on climate change demonstrate once again the urgency of acting, we must responsibly move towards a new balance that will both control our public spending while providing society with real justice social.
I want to draw some ideas here, to bring them into the public debate.
For our young people, we will have to open the basic income from 18 to 25 years around 600 euros per month, or offer an endowment in youth capital of an equivalent amount. How can we ask our young people to work longer, if they are not already able to integrate properly into the labor market, to continue their studies in the best possible conditions, or to create their own activity?
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