This is a hugely important point, because it represents the opportunity to attack the neo-libs with their own rhetoric. In the the logic of the neo-libs, the opportunity cost lost through the imposition of regulation is said to represent a takings of private wealth by the state.
So when a company is forbidden to pursue a business opportunity, let's say that a company views laws banning certain chemical substances as forcing them to suspend production of something that they make. This is said to be theft, a takings.
Yet when working men and women forego wages in order to receive pension payments, and an employer later reneges on paying out those benefits there is not said to be a takings.
Lesson?
The rights of individuals matter less than the rights of impersonal wealth lacking the most basic requirement for human rights: Humanity. And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg
That's the amount of money these workers are losing... quite staggering. Living on 800 a month is very tough in France, impossible near Paris if one wants any comforts. Un roi sans divertissement est un homme plein de misères