Why is there a feeling of poverty in France?
Even though France’s poverty rate, calculated in the usual way (with a threshold of 60% of median income), is low relative to other OECD countries, in France there is a feeling that poverty is a serious and widespread problem. What might account for this feeling? Not the trend in wages relative to productivity; Not the level of the minimum wage; Not rising inequality; Not an increase in household taxes (which has been offset by an increase in public transfer payments to households); Certainly the rise in real estate prices and in the cost of housing; Not a decline in the living standards of pensioners; Not a rise in the prices of some necessities ( rent , telecoms or food) , but the rise in energy prices ; The slowdown in real wage growth, which is partly due to the skewing of the structure of employment. The most negative trend is certainly the rise in the cost of purchased housing.