France’s social crisis is growing, but what can be done?

The French are increasingly rising in protest at the decline in the purchasing power of pensioners and civil servants, weak growth in real wages in the private sector and staff shortages in some public services (hospitals, retirement homes, etc.). The situation risks getting even worse thanks to the looming crisis in the automotive sector. But what can the French government do? It is constrained by: The need to curb the fiscal deficit; Demands to also reduce the tax burden; The high level of low-skilled labour costs and poor competitiveness in industry; The absence of some industries . The long-term solution is well - known (increase in labour force skills, corporate modernisation, devel opment of new industries), but are there solutions in the short term ? In the short term, it is impossible to redistribute more income than that produced by the economy; only zero-sum trade-offs can be made (such as raising the retirement age to increase pensions; reduc ing local authorit y employment to increase staff numbers in healthcare; reduc ing the number of civil servants to increase their per capita wage; hik ing taxes for one category of economic agents to cut them for others, etc.).