Boomers have a total stranglehold over the French economy

Boomers were born between 1945 and 1964, so they are currently aged between 70 and 90.

Lots of countries moan about Boomers, but France really does have a case that Boomers are strangling their economy. Take a look at how high French pensions are compared to the salaries of working adults:

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French pensioners take home more than the average working person! Even though pensioners tend to own their homes outright and thus don't need money for rent or mortgage payments.

Unsurprisingly, meeting the cost of such extravagant pensions has ballooned French govt debt. Here is what has happened to French debt as a percentage of GDP as the pensioner population has grown:

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Germany's debt is lower despite the fact that Germany is an older country than France demographically. But Germany addressed some of it's pension problems 15 years ago; apart from the state pension being less generous than in France, the current pension age in Germany is 65 years and 10 months, and will rise by two months every year till it reaches 67 in 2031.

In France the pension age was 62 until 2023, when Macron increased it to 64 by Presidential decree to great uproar.

As a result French state spending is 60% of GDP compared to 45% of GDP in Germany.

France has been trying to pass a budget all year and keeps failing, resulting in two Prime Ministers resigning. The sticking point is pensions.

The French Assembly is split into a third far-right, a third far-left and a third centrists. The far-right and far-left are both demanding that the pension age is rolled back to 62 and are voting down budgets that don't comply.

Two credit agencies have already downgraded France's rating. Time is running out. If the budget is not passed by the end of October, there will be a constitutional crisis.