Get ready for riots. Macron trying to increase pension age in France

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Pension costs are simply too high in France, which requires some reform if we are being honest. I disagree strongly with Macron’s approach, however. I think a superior approach might be to make early retirement more liberal, along with making it easier to claim what amount to old age disability benefits at an earlier age. This could be combined with pension benefit cuts at the maximum, which would chiefly affect higher earners. The full retirement age could be raised.

I think that white collar workers in France should be encouraged to work longer. It is incredibly wasteful for public sector employees to be encouraged to retire in their early 60s and it is silly for private sector white collar workers to have the same incentives. My main concern is that pension reforms have a tendency to punish manual workers. Improved health does not imply that they are any more able to work in old age. It is incredibly unreasonable to ask them to retrain, as their life expectancy tends to be lower. Pension reforms in countries where pension outlays are extremely high can trim costs while maintaining access for the working class. I would also argue that public pensions should be more egalitarian, with benefits being more decoupled from ‘credits’.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

Adding to my previous post, I am less critical about raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and far more critical of increasing the total number of years someone must work to receive a full pension, which will primarily harm "marginally attached" workers who tend to be much poorer and much more in need of a pension.

For those unsympathetic to workers annoyed by this, consider this rather banal statement of opposition from a bricklayer:

Working as a bricklayer, it’s already a bit of a tall order getting to 60 in good health, even if you have a reduced workload. All day long, you’re coming up against oil, grease, cement, dust, everything there is in the building industry. You’re hammering all the time; it’s very hard on your body. A lot of my colleagues end up with cancer at 60. And even if you don’t get cancer, from the age of 50 onwards, you get bad knees, a bad back, carpal tunnel, damaged ligaments – you name it

Another comment from a 22 year old:

. The aim is to save money, to make the country produce more, to lower companies’ contributions and make people work longer. It’s the poor who are going to be affected, especially since a quarter of the poorest men are already dead by the age of 62 – which is of course scandalous.

Any pension reform needs to be fair and just to manual workers, paying particular attention to those at the bottom of the income distribution. The problem with Macron's reform is that it really makes no concessions to these workers. Once again, France's President of the Rich pursues a reform that punishes these people, while he continues to pursue policies to benefit elites in France. Pension reforms are obviously necessary in France but this is not an approach I favor.

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

If you think wages should be raised to account for inflation, you must also think that the retirement age must be raised to account for longer lifespans.

Wow what a great contribution to this thread, oh what a scholar!