Strategy advisor and essayist, Hakim el Karoui has published, in particular, “Reinventing the West. Essay on an economic and cultural crisis ” (Flammarion, 2006).
FIGAROVOX. - From the music festival to aperitifs on the Esplanade des Invalides, through the trendy evenings of Saint-Tropez, young revelers have been repeatedly scoffed at on social networks for their too casual attitude. Some reply that the coronavirus only worries the elderly, therefore fragile ... Has the epidemic revived a struggle of the ages?
Hakim EL KAROUI. - The opposite has happened: the epidemic has produced a huge global movement of solidarity between generations, from under sixty to over sixty, from young people and workers to retirees. This movement of solidarity is unprecedented in the history of humanity: the world has stopped to preserve the oldest. And, no one questioned the need for this movement. What has been criticized are the methods of confinement, its intrusiveness, deprivation of liberty, management through fear ...
As the epidemic has lost its intensity, it is understandable that anyone who does not feel directly threatened would want to return to normal life. And no wonder doctors and all those who are still very worried about the risk ridicule them.
In a file published in Le Monde, journalists Chloé Hecketsweiler and Solenn de Royer have shown, with supporting figures, that the oldest people were "excluded from hospitals" at the height of the crisis. The living conditions of people in nursing homes have also been the subject of controversy. In the coronavirus storm, has France abandoned its elders?
She did the opposite! We knew very early on that the vast majority of victims of the virus (90%) were over 65 years old. The French government has decided to "close the company" to protect them. And the entire healthcare system was reorganized to cope with the wave of contamination: we chose to leave aside for a time all those who suffered from chronic illnesses, including the most serious. As for nursing homes (where the average age of admission is 86 and where the pre-Covid life expectancy is on average three years), everything indicates that the system has been taken aback.
Moreover, all the resuscitators that I consulted (including because one of my relatives was concerned by the subject) were categorical: resuscitation that lasts three weeks has consequences that are too heavy for the elderly to bear. It is therefore normal that the proportion of very old people in intensive care has fallen (while there was an influx of people under sixty).
Become a slogan, the call “OK boomer!” recently symbolized the generational divide. However, social and economic arbitrations are making it reappear: by going into even more debt than before to revive its economy, is France making the crisis effort weigh on future generations?
Musset, in The Confession of a Child of the Century , describes the children of Bonaparte's soldiers, “this worried youth, sitting on a world in ruins” . Baby boomer children and grandchildren say the same thing. To the climate debt, we must add the financial and social debt. The baby boom generation, who had few children, should have saved to finance their pensions, knowing that the number of working people per retiree was going to collapse. Not only did she not do it, but she put the state in debt beyond measure. The baby boomers invented solidarity backwards: from the poor in debt (the young) to the rich who live on credit (the baby boomers).
The baby boomers invented solidarity backwards: from the poor in debt (the young) to the rich who live on credit (the baby boomers).In 2013, you underlined in an essay entitled The Struggle of the Ages the strong economic inequalities between retirees and workers. Are the “old people” too rich? Should we ask them to do more?
In 2013, I analyzed the management of the financial crisis of 2009 and noted that the decisions taken (freezing of public investment, too big to fail bank guarantees and mountains of money poured into the economy), ultimately had the sole objective of preserving the value of the assets of the generation that had over-indebted the Western world. In a normal situation, they should have lost. And the crisis would have allowed the redistribution of the cards between the generations. The opposite has happened: look at the development of real estate in Paris over the past ten years.
In addition, we continue to believe in France that poverty has an age, that of old age. However, the poverty rate of retirees is 7%, that of the French population of 14% and that of young people under 18 years of 20%. Poverty has changed age! It is urgent that retirees pay the same taxes as other French people.
This question takes on a particular resonance, in the light of the debates on pension reform, which the government of Jean Castex intends to bring to an end ...
Emmanuel Macron had increased the CSG of retirees in 2017 to align it with that of other French people. It was good. But he retreated at the time of the Yellow Vests.
The pension reform under debate does not address this issue.
In this context, the only people to be protected from the economic consequences of the crisis are… retirees whose level of pensions is not correlated with economic activity.Finally, the contraction of the labor market is likely to weigh on the hiring of young people. Will the solutions outlined by the government be able to stem this risk? Do you have any other recommendations to guarantee a job for the generation currently finishing their studies?
The 700,000 young people entering the labor market this year are the first victims of the crisis. But, it is in fact all the assets which will be affected because of the rise in unemployment to come, the fall in demand and the uncontrolled public debt. In this context, the only people to be protected from the economic consequences of the crisis are… retirees whose level of pensions is not correlated with economic activity. Given the fall in GDP, the share of pensions in general GDP will increase by two points! It would be normal, by virtue of solidarity between generations, to temporarily lower the level of pensions (or increase the CSG of retirees) which should not represent more than 14% of GDP (figure before Covid): they would thus also contribute to the financing of the “health war effort” which, I would remind you, was carried out for them.