If the French Can Do it....

and, of course, the unions protested...

"Thousands of demonstrators organized by the Force Ouvriere trade union took to the streets of Paris, France, on Tuesday to protest the government reform plan for the French pension system. The union says more than 70,000 people took part in the protest, but police estimated the crowd at 23,000."

sounds so awful!

"Those workers who have particularly laborious jobs will be allowed to retire early, and those who began working before the age of 18 will still be able to retire at 60, Woerth said"

to think, maybe one day we can have a system as capitalist as France! Imagine, city workers working past FORTY!

France will raise the retirement age from 60 to 62 as part of efforts to wipe out the country's growing deficit, Labor Minister Eric Woerth said Wednesday.

Beats putting your head in the sand. 62 is young. You have to give France's leadership credit for making the hard choices. The unions there should realize the money isn't there and ahve a croisant and relax.

to think, maybe one day we can have a system as capitalist as France! Imagine, city workers working past FORTY!

Merde!

"You have to give France's leadership credit for making the hard choices"

Yeah, scary to think that France can and we can't. Who knew that France better knows how to run business than New York State!

This is actually not a slam dunk decision for the French. They have high unemployment especailly among North African immigrants. A higher retirement age will reduce availability of jobs for the North African youth who live in pretty bad conditions. The French like to lecture us on discrimination ,but there's a fair amount in their own country...

Proof?

If you promise to die at an early age... we will lower the retirement back to 60.

We NEVER NEVER NEVER expected you to live so long... goddammmmmit... cook with some lard, sprinkle some salt on things and for heavens sake..... STOP EXERCISING!

Hey, how about this? You get a state pension for 10 years max, and you can pick when to start :)

nyc10023 -- Great idea -- but better yet -- how about eliminating pensions as a whole -- people donate to their own 401k and save for retirement -- each pays for your their own medical insurance and people stop having their hand out like beggars -- asking what is everybody else going to do for them....

Another funny/ironic fact is that the Chinese(probably under advise from Larry Summers) is looking to social security as a way to get their population to start spending more, thinking they won't save as much if they know the government will pay for their retirement..

France is facing the same problem America does: There will be soon more retired people than active people, and while France has enjoyed a great social system for the last 40 years, this is just not sustainable anymore and concessions have to be made. And each time a concession is to be made, it makes a lot of noise because Unions usually work against the Government while in Germany for instance, Unions work with the Government.
It is to be be noted that the retirement age in Germany and in the UK is at 64 so even if France raising the retirement age to 62, it's not so bad when you look at its neighbor .

why shouldn't companies fend for themselves too? stop the hundreds of billions in subsidies and tax loopholes. that is a hell of a lot more untapped cheddar than what's sitiing in the govt pension pile.
do you see how this is a govt handout?

"do you see how this is a govt handout?"

No, nobody sees it because everyone here is a corporate whore. Plus corporate tax cuts/ loopholes create jobs. I have yet to find any of these jobs.