- cross-posted to:
- genzedong@lemmygrad.ml
- cross-posted to:
- genzedong@lemmygrad.ml
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Bring out the guillotines for old times sake
This is going to be more and more of a problem as populations age. 62 is not a particularly sustainable retirement age. Protestors can protest, but I would like to see them present a counteroffer that isn’t the unsustainable status quo.
My favorite option is semi-retirement leading up to a full retirement. Not only life spans but also healthy life spans have been getting longer. Many people want to have the chance to do things like travel, pursue a hobby, or help with grandchildren in their 60’s and 70’s, but the time constraints of a full time job make that difficult. A part time job with reduced expectations but that relies on their longer experience would be perfect.
I love how you’re opining on a subject you clearly have no familiarity with. They have proposed precisely what they want, and they even have a political party that holds the parliament right now that’s pushing for their demands https://youtu.be/SKvu8M5RQZU?t=1021
A YouTube link was detected in your comment. Here are links to the same video on Invidious, which is a YouTube frontend that protects your privacy:
It’s a subject that’s remained relevant the world over. France is hardly alone. There is a social safety net for the elderly. There is a demographic ticking time bomb where there will no longer be enough workers to pay for the benefit. At least in the US, Social Security was designed in an era where people weren’t really expected to live that much past retirement age. Now that we live longer lives, like 83 instead of 63.
Some politicians have recommended harsh measures, up to and including eliminating social security altogether or raising the age. My suggestion was coming from how I’ve seen my parents enjoy retirement where they were working a little on the side. I have not so far heard anything from the French protestors of that nature.
This isn’t a problem that can be solved under capitalism, and that’s precisely why people are rising up against this system of exploitation the world over. Your suggestion is for people to continue working harder and longer without the ability to retire in dignity so that the oligarchs can keep making profits hand over fist. You well never hear French proletariat support such insanity.
Furthermore, Macron’s government created that 2 billion euro gap by themselves with prior policies that are still entirely reversible. The average and poorer people have no reason to bear the burden of this situation. They’re protesting to protect their rights.
The french pension system is perfectly fine and life expectancy isnt going up anywhere as fast as it used to either. Projections expect about 5 more years by 2100 although sudden progress or downgrade isn’t impossible.
France absolutely has the power and economy to be fine without hitting its citizens’ pensions, its purely a matter of political will. Macron is trying to force it and say he is legitimate because people “knew” when they elected him.
However voting for someone doesn’t mean you support every single of his policies. Protests are the democratic proof of it and cannot be swept under the rug the way he does.
If he’s so sure of himself, why doesn’t he simply organize a referendum regarding this issue?
This isn’t a problem that can be solved under capitalism
It’s a fundamental problem. Capitalism can make it worse by having a poor distribution of resources, sure. But if fewer and fewer workers are supporting more and more retirees, that’s eventually going to strain the workers. Even your beloved China is set to struggle.
expectancy isn’t going up anywhere as fast as it used to either
The issue isn’t just that life expectancy is going up (though it still continues to go up). It’s that a growing retired population is a lagging effect. We haven’t caught up with the life expectancy increases from the 1950’s.
This would only be a problem if there was a global shortage of workers which there isn’t. For example, US holds thousands of able workers in concentration camps on its border right now. There are plenty of people who’d love to move to western countries to work right now. There isn’t really any actual lack of workers. And of course, there is no end of western articles predicting struggles in China. Yet, after many decades not a single one of these predictions has come true so far. I’m sure this will be the first though.
There is an upcoming worker shortage. A few places are already running into issues due to any number of reasons. Maybe life expectancy went up faster than the global average. Violence, poverty, or opportunity could cause young people to move elsewhere when possible. The rich world in general is currently is in the situation of having a low birth rate filled in by migration. The fools in the rich world who don’t appreciate what immigrants bring to the table are battling to deny themselves a rich resource.
But this won’t stay a thing forever. As the Global South, developing countries, whatever you want to call them start to catch up, two things will happen. One is they too will experience declining birth rates, as has consistently been the case as living standards increase. The other is that net migration will start to zero out. There won’t be camps full of people begging to be let in. It will be more like Russia is right now, with an aging population and few young people. I’m not picking on Russia, they just have the demographics of a shrinking young population and and a growing old population.
The solution to aging global population is to allocate labour and resources in a way that reduces the need for necessary labour. Automation and efficiency have been on the rise since the industrial revolution, and yet none of that has translated into reduction of the amount of work people are expected to do. The idea that people living longer is the problem here is the height of absurdity. The problem is with the fact that labour and resources aren’t allocated in a sane way.
