Entitlement Blues

There is trouble in France over a very minor change in retirement policy. Labor Unions are on strike, students are rioting. All over a very minor change -- retirement age at 62 instead of 60 and doesn't take effect until 2018. From Business Insider:

Violent French Protests Show Why A New Debt Crisis Is Inevitable
French protests continue to rock France, with marchers throwing Molotov cocktails and blocking fuel supplies.

The strikes have gained intensity as high school students have now joined the ruckus, even conveniently blocking access to their own schools according to the Los Angeles Times. What sacrifice they show.

Police and youth have clashed in a dozen cities reports the Independent, and the country has been forced to tap its crisis fuel supply says the New York Post.

Yet what's most shocking about the strikes is the modest pension reform they are opposed to. The French government is merely increasing the age of retirement to 62 from 60, by 2018, which is nothing compared to the far harsher austerity measures people are protesting in places such as Greece and Spain.

Thus it's probably less about the actual pension reforms and more about President Sarkozy's political opposition inflaming general anti-government grievances. It's hard to imagine how high school students understand the debt situation France faces.

Yet sadly, opposition politicians are playing with fire by egging on ignorance of France's financial challenges, and thus a full blown crisis is likely the only way people will ever understand says the Financial Times: "It may need a genuine fiscal crisis finally to persuade the French that, as Margaret Thatcher once put it: 'There is no alternative.'"

One wonders just how far down the road the French will have to go before the general public learns some of the basic economic facts. They are looking at this from a very self-centered view and have no concern about the overall health of the Nation. I want my Pension and I am not doing anything to damage France. Idiots...