Revolution burns in France and wider Europe

@larroumecj:

We are at the confluence of two distinct civilizational phenomena leading to revolution:

The first: in a democratic society, as Tocqueville noted, every inequality quickly becomes unbearable because there are only two ways to explain why some people succeed better than oneself: corruption of the system or merit. 

And psychologically, unsurprisingly, we tend to think that those who succeed better than us benefit from a corrupt system rather than being more deserving. 

Democracy is therefore a regime that structurally creates armies of the discontented, except when there is strong economic growth.

Because then one can reasonably bide one's time, telling oneself that in a few years, one will oneself be at the same level as those one envies. 

It has been 15 years since there has been any growth in France.

Younger generations do not believe their situation will naturally catch up to that of the more privileged.

As a result, they no longer have much interest in keeping the system alive. All the more so since, often having no children and not being homeowners, they are subject to none of the traditional conservative forces.

The second: as Schumpeter noted, capitalism, by exploding industrial and agricultural productivity, reduces to a pittance the number of manual jobs. Society thus begins to produce gigantic cohorts of people trained in intellectual professions, even as the economy does not need so many people in those sectors. No matter how much we multiply bullshit jobs, we nevertheless produce a large number of educated and unemployable individuals. (They consider manual jobs not dignified enough.)

These cohorts are structurally revolutionary because they see themselves as an enlightened elite in opposition to the existing system.

France is one of the world's most tertiary economies and has one of the highest percentages of individuals pursuing higher education.

It has had no growth for 15 years.

Kaboom, then?

Not yet, because there is, however, a component of society that has an absolute interest in maintaining the system as it is: retirees.

And they represent a third of the electorate. 

Their role is ambivalent: they prevent destructive revolution just as much as any reform capable of making the system viable. 

This is thus one of the key tasks of politics today: to restart economic growth and redirect wealth toward the active population, while succeeding both in bypassing retirees' blockages and containing the revolutionary impulses of youth.

This is just one of France's many urgent projects in this period of multiple crises.

But with the approaching financial crisis, the debt buffer is coming to an end. The fundamental question of whom and what the French economic machine serves can no longer remain without a satisfactory answer for long.