Government retirement programs start out as Ponzi schemes (scil., generous but few outgoing returns paid from numerous but modest incoming receipts), soon become candy stores, and then, when the pyramid inverts (scil., more money going out than coming in), they become someone else's fault. If you live in a Western low-birth democracy and believe you will enjoy the same government retirement benefits enjoyed by your parents, ah, dear skimmer, dream on.

Of course, the more candy your successive governments have promised you the sooner you will be disabused of that promise. If you are lucky your government will go bust while you are still in your 30s. If you are in your 40s or 50s, bad luck, you are screwed.

French governments have promised a lot of candy. And amid the abundance of candy, there are those, les régimes spéciaux, who have been promised more candy than others, a superabundance of candy. Workers on the state payroll (e.g., La Poste, SNCF, Banque de France, RATP, SNCF, GDF, EDF, et al.) typically retire earlier, contribute less, and are paid more than workers in the private sector. Retiring early of course insures that a state worker contributes less, but he also pays lower contributions. The pension in some régimes spéciaux is calculated on the last six months of salary (peak earnings), against the best 25 years of the private sector worker. Little wonder that the French aspire to government employment. And the government has obliged, employing roughly a quarter of the French work force.

Alas, like all Ponzi schemes, the French candy store will soon have an insuperable candy deficit and go bust.

FRENCH AUDITOR CALL FOR URGENT PENSION REFORM

PARIS September 13, 2006 (MSNBC/FT) - The Cour des comptes annual report on the social security system...will call for the special schemes [scil., régimes spéciaux] to be aligned with those in the private sector. The report warns the social security deficit will rise from €16bn this year to €37bn by 2009.

It argues that the "régimes spéciaux" are unsustainable, as they will soon have as many pensioners as contributors, with a fifth of their members drawing a pension under the age of 60.

... Previous attempts to reform the schemes triggered massive street protests and crippling strikes by public sector trades unions, ending in humiliating U-turns by successive prime ministers, including Edouard Balladur in 1993 and Alain Juppé in 1995.

FRENCH AUDITOR URGES PENSION REFORM AS POLL LOOMS

PARIS September 14, 2006 (MSNBC/ Reuters) - France's Cour des Comptes, a body which monitors the way public funds are used, said the retirement branch of France's social security system was facing a structural deficit without being set to improve in the short-term.

"Given the development of the social security (system)'s financial situation, it requires new and profound reforms very quickly," the court's president Philippe Seguin said at a presentation of the body's annual report.

... Seguin said that reform conducted in 2003 had not brought special pension schemes for the state rail network SNCF, the Paris public transport system RATP and soon-to-be privatised Gaz de France more in line with other public service pensions. Special clauses enable some workers to retire at 50, or 55, despite shortfalls in their pension funds that are currently made up by the tax payer. The long-term aim is to put them more in line with the main pension system where retirement is at 60.

The 2003 reforms, which the conservative government pushed through despite mass protests, were designed to keep the main pensions systems solvent but left the special regimes unchanged. Pension reform is a politically perilous undertaking in France and is widely blamed for the conservatives' defeat in snap 1997 polls.

The debate about the pensions came at a delicate time for the government, as it is seeking to push the privatisation of GDF through parliament against trade union resistance. Many GDF workers, who this week staged strikes against the privatisation, are part of the special pension schemes.

THOUSANDS MARCH IN FRANCE AGAINST PRIVATISATION

PARIS September 12, 2006 (AFP) - Thousands of gas and electricity workers took part in demonstrations across France Tuesday against a government bill currently being debated in parliament to privatise the state-owned Gaz de France (GDF).

Electricity and gas supplies to the home of government spokesman Jean-François Copé were cut off as part of the protest, unions said.

The French never tire of killing the messenger.

However the measure is opposed by the left-wing opposition, which has tabled a record 130,000 amendments in a bid to stall the bill's passage through the National Assembly.

Gas and electricity workers were also angered by UMP proposals published in a newspaper Tuesday to reform the pension system by ending the early retirement provisions available for EDF and GDF staff as well as some other state employees.

That small -- ding! -- is the bell inside your head signaling the obvious. Opposition to privatization is not some noble principled stand against cruel Anglo-Saxon economic liberalism. It is about the defense of privilege.

PFFT (What is this?): Go rationalize someone else's damn pension 4 | Rayonnement français 0