“If pensions are social benefits like any other, we must tell the French”

Retirees do not see themselves as people living at the expense of national solidarity. Far from it, they unanimously consider their pensions to be deferred wages. Which seems legitimate: in France, you have to contribute for many years, 172 quarters now, in order to receive, without a planer, this replacement income at a time when, with declining enthusiasm and health, it becomes more difficult to work. As such, pensions cannot be compared to other benefits, such as unemployment insurance or RSA. All active people, barring accidents, become retired, and, in the best case, for many years.

However, in national accounts, this difference in nature is not obvious: retirees' contributions have in fact been spent by the vast public machinery well before the latter receive their pensions. Parliamentarians, who are currently debating the Social Security finance bill