3 days ago
High Earner Not Rich Yet? Meet France's Nicolas
Nicolas is 40-something, French, working a steady job in the prime of life — and feeling utterly screwed. Looking at the horizon, he sees cruise ships packed with boomers basking in the glow of a pension he'll never have. Looking at his payslip, he sees almost half his wage go to a state whose handouts he doesn't get. And when he looks at the headlines, he's told he will have to work more for less to help repair a hole in the public finances. Perhaps it might be time to think about a stint in Dubai or Milan after all?
Nicolas isn't a real person but a meme and a hashtag: 'Nicolas pays.' He's the French variation on the viral theme of millennial disillusionment, from the HENRYs of Britain — High Earners Not Rich Yet — to the quiet quitters of America. Nicolas is cruder and more populist, stereotyping his foes as chavs living on handouts or sun-tanned Costa cruisers. He's also a little whinier, given France is really not that bad a place to be (one suspects Nicolas is out of office in August). High-profile commentators have called the meme cruel, selfish and ultimately a Trojan horse for the far-right. Indeed, transport Nicolas back to the 1950s and he might feel most at home with that era's small-state, anti-foreigner poujadistes.
