The despair and anger of France’s youth have spilled out onto the streets, exposing the consequences of years of political paralysis, fiscal mismanagement and delayed structural reform. On Saturday (local time), approximately 550,000 people reportedly took part in demonstrations across 110 locations nationwide, with some protests escalating into arson and looting. Behind the unrest lies a deeper grievance: a social contract increasingly perceived as unfair to younger generations, who are being asked to shoulder the costs of an aging society while facing diminishing opportunities in return. At the heart of the crisis is France’s generous pension system. The country’s public pension replacement rate stands at approximately 72 percent of pre-retirement earnings, far above the OECD average of 43 percent. Retirees’ disposable incomes can even exceed the median incomes of workers in their 20s and 30s. The poverty rate among French retirees is around 4 percent, reportedly much lower than among young people, who are already burdened by high housing costs and scarce employment opportuni