That doesn't seem true. End of 2023 the mean retired net income in France seems to be 1 541 € [1] while the mean net salary of a worker is between 1 940 € and 4 630 € depending on whether the person works in the public sector and depending on the class.
> I don't know why everyone is being so dismissive
Because that's mostly unsubstantiated random feeling that has implications that look quite bad. What do you want, when you stress that retired people earn too much (which seems mostly wrong, as we just saw), blaming this as major¹ cause of a European decline? Do you wish we would just stop providing income to the retired people?
¹ because if it's not a major cause, why even mention it?
[1] https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/publications-communi...