Nice writing, as always. France has a particular culture of street protests. My feeling is that a (very thin) majority of French realize that their pension system cannot go on unreformed. I'm surprised though at how badly it has been explained though (I'm listening to French radio in the car and reading a bit of French press from time to time). Basically people have been left to try to make sense of it for themselves and basic financial education is very low in France - understanding of the basics of economics is generally lower than in Anglo Saxon cultures
I reckon that economic/ financial literacy is poor in the majority of the world, especially at the macro level. Then, the ability to see all the interconnected dependencies and interactions is almost entirely lacking, which makes it an easy system to game, for those who understand it. Knowledge is power, only when it is used - but most people don't even know that.