Posted on 05/27/2010 6:22:54 AM PDT by Ebenezer
PARIS – Strikes across France delayed flights, closed schools and frustrated commuters Thursday as workers protested government plans to raise the retirement age past 60 — one of the lowest even in Europe.
President Nicolas Sarkozy says retiring so young is now untenable given growing life spans, but unions see his planned reforms to France's over-stretched pension system as yet another blow to Europe's cherished social model.
His government wants to raise the retirement age to 61 or 62 — reforms that have been under discussion since well before the current European debt crisis. Sarkozy has called them his main priority this year.
Despite the protests, France's retirement plans pale before the harsh austerity measures instituted by other European nations, including Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Spain and Italy have also announced recent austerity plans as a debt crisis that started in Greece has weakened the euro and raised questions about the future of currency shared by 16 nations.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Greedy greedy greedy!
Lets all retire ... That’s what ultimately happened to the Soviet Union.
“Europe’s cherished social model” — that is, screw the kids and grandkids that nobody is having because socialism caused hedonism, sloth and self-centered, selfish egotists. Now only if they could import 50 million more muslims and screw their children.
Does the government compel them to work after age 60? That’s awful if true. I retired at age 54.
Or do you mean they won’t get a hand out if they retire before age 60?
We ignorant Americans and our rotten capitalist system must keep our workers going until age 66/67 or beyond so our taxes and banks and retirement investments can fund the IMF to keep these Club Med europeans in the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.
"We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us."
When you are forced into a system and work for 30 years paying into that system, I can imagine being real angry myself if the rules were changed. In fact, maybe I should get my pitch fork and torches ready. ;-)
What a bunch of spoiled, whiny little sissies.
I don’t know what these people are thinking. Are they deliberately trying to crash the system, or are they really so naive as to think the goodies can flow indefinitely?
In the private sector, you retire when you want. Only Social Security and government-tax programs interfere with early retirement.
The slave state applies to government and union workers.
This is all just Kabuki theater. People in Europe will shut their countries down and/or elect hard-core Communists to power before they will part with even the smallest of their cherished Social Benefits.
The tapeworm demands that the host eats filet mignon.
“When you are forced into a system and work for 30 years paying into that system, I can imagine being real angry myself if the rules were changed. In fact, maybe I should get my pitch fork and torches ready. ;-)”
From about the early 90’s on, it was obvious that governments were making promises they could never keep regarding retirement. These Unionists were just thinking they would get theirs before the house of cards came crashing down. Even if they have been paying in for 30 years, everybody knew it was a ponzi scheme. The current workers just didn’t know they were at the bottom.
“everybody knew it was a ponzi scheme. The current workers just didn’t know they were at the bottom.”
A Ponzi scheme can still work so long as there is someone left to hold the bag. The unions got Barack Obama elected in 2008 and as a consequence the health reform plan included tens of billions of dollars which will be used to pay retiree health benefits—the principal beneficiaries being those in union health plans.
Likewise, Uncle Sam almost assuredly will be asked to bail out union pension funds that go belly-up on grounds that it wouldn’t be “fair” to deny retirees their promised benefits (however lavish).
Finally, unions essentially drove GM into bankruptcy, yet were handed nearly one third of the company when it was reorganized by the feds. I think there’s little doubt union more than got their money’s worth from their sock puppet in the White House.
While in Germany the retirement age is being raised from 65 to 67...
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