François de Closets is a journalist and essayist. He is the author of some twenty books, including
Always more!
, Ed. Grasset, 1982,
La France à quit ou double
, Ed. Fayard, 2015, and
La parenthèse boomers
, Ed. Fayard, 2022.
FIGAROVOX.- In your book, you criticize the policy carried out by the children of the baby boom between the end of the 1970s and 2020, which according to you led France to decline. Why did you want to make this review?
Francois DE CLOSETS.-
France went through a period that I call "the boomer parenthesis" during which it experienced neither war, famine, epidemic, catastrophe or major economic crisis.
This parenthesis during which the boomers ruled France is unique in the history of France.
History is usually tragic, short from one disaster to another and peace is never anything but an inter-war period.
During the “boomer parenthesis”, the French believed they had an acquired right to live in this History which hibernates and in this news subject to the hazards of small fluctuations.
They thought they had an acquired right to growth, an acquired right to peace.
However, what happened during this happy period?
France has accumulated nearly three trillion in debt.
These debts on the backs of our children do not correspond to investments, because the rate of public investment has decreased since France is in deficit, but are only comfort and consumption expenditure.
I have denounced this scandal in my books over the decades, and I say it again today.
France had never been over-indebted in its history except in times of war.
That this indebtedness was constituted in the absence of any particular constraint is abominable, and the silence on this subject is unbearable.
and I say it again today.
France had never been over-indebted in its history except in times of war.
That this indebtedness was constituted in the absence of any particular constraint is abominable, and the silence on this subject is unbearable.
and I say it again today.
France had never been over-indebted in its history except in times of war.
That this indebtedness was constituted in the absence of any particular constraint is abominable, and the silence on this subject is unbearable.
While it was enough to maintain this situation, the boomers gave in to the convenience of credit and the deficit.
Francois de Closets
How do you explain this historical turnaround after the years of post-war reconstruction and the Gaullist years?
There are reversals caused by disasters.
This historical reversal was caused by the absence of disaster.
This generation of spoiled children has fallen into the trap of this extremely favorable period.
Everything seemed acquired, everything seemed due.
In 1970, France was the most dynamic and prestigious country in Europe.
While it was enough to maintain this situation, the boomers gave in to the convenience of credit and the deficit.
Gaullist France had the strongest finances in the world, which prompted bankers to offer credit.
Under these conditions, the French lived on credit, unwilling to make the mere minimum efforts to perpetuate what had been given to them.
You criticize the boomer ideology based on individualism and selfishness. In order to carry out a policy in favor of the country, is it necessary to rediscover the notion of the common good?
General de Gaulle had imposed civic freedom in the service of the community.
He had thus placed the French at the service of France.
The country came before individual and immediate satisfaction.
The French were reluctant but followed the Gaullist policy.
In 1968, young people who took perpetual growth for granted revolted and shattered this system.
Society then had the supreme objective of respecting individual freedom and instant gratification, no longer of ensuring continuity.
We must return to the notion of civic freedom and put an end to this supremacy of individual freedom.
The only absolute must be the common good.
Our society is turned upside down by a major change that we did not want to see, which is aging.
Never in history has a society experienced this phenomenon.
Previously, existence spanned three generations: children, adults, and old people who barely existed.
In 1945, the life expectancy of the French was slightly over 60 years.
Suddenly, we have to insert another 25 years into our society.
The boomers have decided to make these years the best time of their lives where they are maintained in idleness by their children.
If retirement at 60 for workers was necessary, retirement at 60 for everyone is a scandal.
At age 60, a person has an average of fifteen years of healthy life ahead of them and no
there is no good reason to put oneself entirely in charge of the next generation.
It is shocking to see that today, Marine Le Pen and Jean-Luc Mélenchon are proposing to return to retirement at age 60, that is to say to add two years of pension to pay.
This represents tens of billions at their expense, while our country is the only one where retired seniors live better than working people who pay pensions.
It is the first time that taking from those who have the least, to give to those who have the most, has been presented as social progress.
two years of pension payable.
This represents tens of billions at their expense, while our country is the only one where retired seniors live better than working people who pay pensions.
It is the first time that taking from those who have the least, to give to those who have the most, has been presented as social progress.
two years of pension payable.
This represents tens of billions at their expense, while our country is the only one where retired seniors live better than working people who pay pensions.
It is the first time that taking from those who have the least, to give to those who have the most, has been presented as social progress.
The problem that arises is to organize the twenty years of additional life, which will result in the years to come in a prodigious increase in people in a state of dependency.
Francois de Closets
You mention in your book the question of aging which leads to that of dependence. To respond to this increasingly present challenge, should we redefine the links of solidarity?
We must rethink the balance between generations, thinking that each generation has a duty to prepare the next.
In the family world, everything is done so that young people can take their place in society.
Parents see it as their duty to help their children integrate into society.
In the same way, the generations have a duty vis-à-vis those who follow them to help them progress and find their place.
The problem that arises is to organize the twenty years of additional life, which will result in the coming years in a prodigious increase in people over 80, and a very significant increase in people in a state of dependency .
The boomers have granted themselves a happy period on the backs of their children, the period of seniors between 60 and 75, but have nothing planned for the future and are unable to cope with it.
So we have to rethink everything.
Cohesion is the mutual aid of generations, each in its role.
There are five ages in life today: children, teenagers, adults, seniors and old people.
Seniors and old people are not in the same category or in the same condition.
The former need money to live, the latter assistance.
This assistance cannot come only from employees because neither the personnel nor the sufficient resources will be found.
It must be the seniors who have the obligation to fulfill this social activity in addition to their pensions.
Every Frenchman and every Frenchwoman from the age of 50 must prepare for old age, as a child prepares for adulthood.
Francois de Closets
At the end of your book, you offer a forecasting advice. How would it work?
In this book, I propose concrete things.
Today there are scientific studies on aging, and we have the example of societies that have faced this problem.
From this we know what we have to do.
La Parenthèse boomers
is a book of proposals to reconcile the generations, and not a book of denunciation to lead to the war of the generations.
I propose a system where every Frenchman and every Frenchwoman from the age of 50 must prepare for old age, like a child prepares for adulthood.
He must be informed, have a personal diagnosis according to his heredity and his way of life.
From the age of 60, he must choose between continuing to work or carrying out a social activity, in order to obtain a full pension.
People who want to stop working in their sixties will have to have a supervised activity with responsibilities and services to be rendered.
This activity must be more than volunteering and allow to take care of the aging generation which needs assistance.
It is not up to the working people who already pay pensions to do this work beyond the family framework.
It is for seniors who are between 60 and 80 years old
go to 80-100 year olds so as not to leave them alone.
Such a system works in the Scandinavian countries and in Denmark.
François de Closets, The boomers parenthesis, Ed. Fayard, 05/25/2022, 320p.
Fayard
