Members of France's younger generation cannot look forward to the kind of social security enjoyed by their predecessors
France's sluggish economic growth of recent years is an obvious
culprit. But this stagnation has had a deep effect on the confidence of the class that makes up more than 50 per cent of the population.
"The rise in purchasing power has slowed down and the French have seen this as a decline in purchasing power," says sociologist Gérard Mermet, author of Francoscopie, the bible of French society. In reality, French citizens have enjoyed increases in their purchasing power of 1-2 per cent a year.
But the perception that budgets are more constrained is not entirely false. More household income is now being spent on electricity, gas, water and fuel, which take up roughly 38 per cent of household spending today, against 21 per cent in 1979.
Property and rental costs too have risen far faster than either wages or inflation. Finally, fewer people are moving out of poverty, and impoverishment is no longer the
preserve of the unemployed. The National Observatory of Poverty and Social Exclusion cites some 740,000 qualified fee-based workers - such as notaries, accountants and even lawyers - as poor.
The fear is that the middle class status is no longer
a given, not even for those who have good jobs. "In the 1970s and 80s wage-based society, your status was very, very stable," says Louis Chauvel, professor at Sciences-Po university in Paris. "Now it is more and more unclear and it is not just a question of being fired. It is about your retirement too. There is increasing uncertainty over what will happen."
"People believe it is more difficult to stay in their place. There is a strong fear of falling down the social ladder," says Mr Mermet.
The feeling that life is getting worse rather than better has led to a general
disillusionment with the politicians who have presided over the recent years of social and economic stagnation. Some commentators suggest that the disaffection of the middle classes can in part explain the rapid rise in popularity of the extreme right National Front.
But there is also a sense that being a member of the middle class no longer holds the attraction it once did. Mr Gaboriau is certain that teachers are no longer the figures of respect they were when he began his career. "They were seen as people with authority who could be trusted, but today parents see themselves as
adversaries," he says. "Teachers don't really represent much for society," he says.
So Mr Gaboriau's job, a lifelong passion, has become ever more stressful, he says, especially as he and his wife contemplate another 20 or more years in work to pay for a pension that today they say they cannot quantify. "We don't think we will be able to stand in front of students at the age of 70," he says. "How can we, when the relationship with families has changed and those students are certain to be more difficult?"
