Allons enfants de la Patrie...

France is creeping toward a standstill. Rail workers are striking, students and truck drivers have blocked roads, and a quarter of the country’s gas stations are dry. As bottles and bricks fly through the air, smoky from car fires, even the Socialists are worried.

This is the sixth and, according to the BBC or NYT, most bitter general strike to grip l’Hexagone since August over pension reform. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s plan to increase the age of partial and full retirement to 62 and 67, respectively, and his apparent snub of unions and political opposition have angered many. The tightening of France’s budget, part of a larger eurozone effort to bring “a new austerity to a comfortable European way of life,” will affect both young and old, and they are taking to the streets.

Having learned their language for the better part of eight years (and slowly and shamefully unlearning it ever since), I feel a strange affinity for the French. Though I was not the best pupil of the language of love, I was fascinated by French culture and society, and am now once again mesmerized by and jealous of their solidarity.

Social unity and unrest aside, France’s pension reform conundrum is likely a preview of coming attractions for the US. Only recently have I become aware of an impending meltdown at the hands of Social Security. Much like in France, our burgeoning demographic of retirees is straining the shrinking workforce. As Bobblehead says, the Social Security retirement system is an outdated, “welfare state” dinosaur that will pull the federal government down the road to bankruptcy. But reform, as we can see, is no easy or small pill to swallow.

At stake is the welfare of an entire nation. Unless us Gen X’ers and Millennials want to care for aging parents ourselves, Baby Boomers decide to work until 70 or 75, or we all agree to give the elderly daily rations of Soylent Green, some hard questions will need to be asked and answered, just as they are in France. And, likely, not everyone will be happy.

It seems we have entered an age of dilemmas.