Sorry, but when aren’t the French on strike?
Seriously, it’s been at least 35 years since I’ve heard about a French person actually working..
French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
761–770 of 835 posts
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#762Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Every single pension system has the working population pay for the retirees. Where do you think the money comes from? Disagree. Counter-examples: 401k in the US Second pillar in Switzerland. The money comes from the people saving and investing their own money for their old age. Shocker, I know.
it is a common misconception that how the retirement is funded makes a huge difference in how much you need to save. In most situations, it does not matter nearly as much as people believe. Dependency ratio will determine in large part how much people will need to save to get a given level of retirement income. For example, your 401k ability to pay for your retirement will depend on productivity gains , growth, savin…
In Italy, the retirement age was raised to 67 in 2011. However, in some cases, it is still possible to retire earlier, but the amount you receive will be proportionally adjusted based on your remaining life expectancy.
This change in retirement age only partially applies to those who started working before 1995. Therefore, it is still in a transition phase, and it will take some time before it takes full effect.
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#763Earlier quoted context omitted.
> drastic productivity increases have somehow not really improved our lives in terms of freedom, time, physical/mental health, quite the opposite. Here's where the money went: https://www.federalbudgetinpictures.com/federal-spending-per... And that doesn't include all the state and local government.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trump-debt-25-percent/ (25% of national debt was incurred during the last administration; half was COVID relief measures, the other half was tax cuts for the wealthy) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fiscal-deficit-idUSKB... (Republican tax cuts to fuel historic U.S. deficits: CBO) Sources at bottom of the first link. This doesn’t include healthcare cost inflation due to a gros…
Ha ha ha. If you taxed 100% of the wealth of the wealthiest (Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, John Kerry, et al - everyone worth say over $100 million) amongst us, you wouldn't even make a dent in the national debt. And I mean take every nickel they have, the national debt will still be out of control. The old saw that tax cuts for the wealthiest increases the national debt is an argument that simply cannot stand up to scrutiny.
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#764Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#765Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'll admit that I don't understand French social security well at all, but based on what I've read online it seems like increasing salaries would actually reduce the amount of money going to social security because that would mean lower profits for employers (who contribute a higher percentage of their income). Obviously, in terms of wealth redistribution, it's better to have higher wages. But increasing them would a…
"that would mean lower profits for employers (who contribute a higher percentage of their income)" No, for equivalent 'net money on your wallet after tax' a company pay more tax for employees than for company owner. Without detailling too much (and by choosing an 'arbitrary but realistic situation') the are two ways of getting money from your company to your personal bank account : - a specialy taxed "company owner"…
Cool, thanks for the links!
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#766Earlier quoted context omitted.
basically you pay a % of your salary to the pension fund. the higher the salary the more money you pour into. yes it will reduce profits for employers but even that is only short term. if salary rise you are more competitive on the global talent pool and you can do like america where a big chunk of today s giant were built by highly educated immigrants that came mostly because of the high salaries
With inflation at the level that it is, everyone will end up with minimum salary anyway, so what's the point?
no. inflation is really good in an economy where salaries rise.
its good to borrow money, its good for the working population (the one that makes the country thrive) and it is less good for retired people (that already own wealth and lived through better economic times)
In France think about it, the majority of the working population voted for Marine LePen, the majority of retired people voted for Macron, Young non working people voted for Melenchon. Hence why macron needs to satisfy his base, old people that retired early and now wants us to work more so that they can enjoy more their stress free life while everything is more expensive for the rest of us.
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#767Earlier quoted context omitted.
the system IS sustained. the main white collar one even generates profits. increase the salaries that will increase money being sent to retirement funds and it won’t be a problem anymore. france income per capita has been the same for the past 20 years. they are stealing our wages to make us slaves and they blame us for not working enough. christine lagarde pushed for blocking wage rise in the EU, european commission…
The system ISN'T sustained, not even the most optimistic scenario supports your argument. And funneling even more money into it like you want to isn't an option, the GDP proportion dedicated to retirement increased a lot already. You've seen the low salary but you didn't understand the cause of that, the cause of that is the money is being funneled to the retirement system.
why not? we have 98% of GDP debt and we kept funneling money into this debt.
why suddenly the pension funds are the problem?
it states that in 10 years there will be 20 billion deficit , that doesn’t include the raise of salaries to match inflation (it was removed in france in 1983) I ll wonder what would be the numbers if we do this simulation but pretty sure it will be positive.
Finally, 20 billions is nothing for france, we spend 40 billions on immigration so by your logic we should just stop pouring money and lock our country?
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#768Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds like an excellent opportunity to start selling goods and services.
Where is an average person going to get the capital to start telling goods and services?
Average business loans in the euro area are around 4% as of December 2022, though governments are still raising rates. As long as these unreasonable profit margins are higher, it would make sense to get one, and I'm not sure anything under 15% profit (much higher than current govt bond rates) could be considered unreasonable. I started manufacturing candles during the pandemic with only a few thousand dollars up front and those things can get 50% margins which is insane.
I understand that monopolies and barriers to entry can exist. The government should be much more focused on eliminating those rather than central planning through things like pensions that are shockingly complex and have a penchant for unintended consequences. I believe in a social safety net but markets with a little guidance can do most of the government's work for it and avoid be better at avoiding a ton of pitfalls like runaway inflation.
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#769Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I love that so many people are convinced everyone but them is doing nothing and somehow getting paid for it. That's not the point. The point is what they are producing isn't contributing value to our lives, or actually creating negative value. Building highways looked very productive on paper in the 50's, but now we live in car dependent sprawl, and we continue to pay people to maintain that sprawl when we could ha…
You're forgetting that a lot of people that use those highways want to live outside the city and don't want to be crammed into the city. I love it in the city, can't imagine living where you literally cannot walk anywhere - but most of those people out there like it or they wouldn't be out there. So, no, the people maintaining those highways aren't doing nothing . Maybe they're doing nothing for you . Maybe you can a…
It's a false dichotomy to say the only two options are walkable and cramped, and spacious and car-dependent.
Re: French workers protest plan to increase retirement age
#770Earlier quoted context omitted.
> left-leaning ideas of the younger generations about ecology and equality "extreme-left" Whatever the labelling you want to use, but we know for a fact that extreme ecology is going to destroy our country. We saw what happened with French nuclear, we are seeing it in the EU car industry, we are seeing it in French housing. We already know that radical ecology is going to bring social unrest. That the first to suffer…
> Macron is just trying to level the playing field and make France attractive. ... to whom? > After this reform, we will still be one of the most generous country in the world even for pension and social net even among Europe and even more worldwide. Not sure why I'm thinking about a frog being slowly boiled alive.
> ... to whom?
To the people whose job it is to advocate for the privileges of the wealthy. And that is a frightening number of highly-trained, well-paid people.
They are starting with the foundational belief that taking any privileges whatsoever from the wealthy will end in complete catastrophe for all of society. This is, of course, not true, but it's a story that pays well to tell and re-tell. So, it gets told a lot, particularly here in the Anglosphere, and also apparently now in France.