French President Nicholas Sarkozy's plans to reform the pension system have triggered widespread public protests. Yet even the prospect of fierce protests has not changed Mr. Sarkozy's mind. Many French citizens consider retirement at age 60 a birthright, but France, like many other developed economies, cannot afford such largess. Mr. Sarkozy is merely the leading edge of France's new economic reality.

To deliver on his pledge to revitalize the economy, Mr. Sarkozy proposed raising the minimum standard retirement age to 62 from 60 and the age to receive full pension benefit from 65 to 67, both by 2018. This move, undoing reform passed in 1983 that lowered the retirement age from 65, was intended to staunch the red ink flowing from the state-run pension system and demonstrate Paris' seriousness about getting its economic house in order.

Yet French citizens consider reform an assault on their rights, if not their very identity. It prompted millions of people to take to the streets. Demonstrators blocked airports and fuel depots, taking "go-slow" measures on buses, trams, trains and even highways. About 40 percent of French gas stations ran out of fuel at some point, prompting the government to order the police to clear fuel depots.