In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Actually in France there are different levels of disability pension, some of which are compatible with work (you can then get the pension and still work at the same time).
This graph above overall means that disabled people are more likely to work in France, because the system lets them do just that.
by the way, we created something else : RMI, 700euros of minimum ressource for any person older than 25 yo.
there is always 1 or 2 millions that can not be employed, they just do fit the system.
Not bad, seems like you could almost live on that (outside large cities). -----sapere aude
But France may have an encouraging policy towards disability and employment, we're still far behind the UK when it comes to actually making life easier for people with disabilities. The new municipal library in Toulouse, the médiathèque, however, has done a great job for wheelchair access, braille books etc etc. But phone booths, public toilets, and even administration offices etc with proper access are still lagging.
On the other hand, there's "incapacity", which means the person is medically considered unfit to work (until such time as the medical appraisal changes). Now that can be a "sink" for long-term unemployed persons the government would like to shunt off the unemployment stats. France doesn't do this; the UK has done a huge amount of it. (see these comments from the other day.)
ET has been in the forefront (long before McKinsey or the latest OECD report) in pointing out the importance of incapacity numbers in masking unemployment for propaganda purposes. Here is a diary I wrote about it last October.
