Monday, October 18, 2010

AT LEAST WE ARE NOT FRANCE

as i constantly despair about the state and prospects for america, i am at least grateful that at least we are not france

sarkozy is trying to implement a small, totally correct thing, moving the retirement age for pensions from 60 to 62. the "workers" are on strike. they can strike there way to poverty. all these welfare states, including america, have unsustainable structures given the benefits committed to versus ever longer life expectancies taking account birth rates and the ratio and workers to retirees.

it just doesnt work. what needs to happen in france is for the average french person to support the government and say we need to do this

vive la difference

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

no, we are not like france....we are in a worse position. how so?
congress has been having hearings on the idea of taking all the pension funds, which you ad i have worked our asses off for, and putting them in a "national retirement fund" where the government determines who gets what and when. yes indeedy. vote for democrats and put this ball in motion! and i guarantee you that marches in the streets as in france will be pudding compared to what will occur in america if they touch iras, annuitites, etc.

Andy Butler said...

The French Senate just passed the raising of the retirement age. Though the process was messy, at least the French are making progress dealing with curtailing benefits that once may have seemed necessary but now are a burden on their society. When is the last time we have seen either party deal honestly with us about the government’s inability to continue to support this level of spending? Both parties are addicted to the old, tired game of buying our support with “freebies”. But truthfully are any of us willing to give up our benefits? Isn’t the problem really with the electorate who has consistently voted out of office any politician who deals honestly with our deficit spending addiction? The Democrats want to sell us that Social Security is solvent and will remain so forever. The Republicans want us to believe that we should continue to underwrite the economies of Germany, France, Korea and Japan with our defense budgets when those countries take the funds that should be spent on their own defense and underwrite infrastructure investments. What do we honestly think would happen to a politician in the U.S. who stood up and proposed to raise the Social Security retirement age, cut defense spending, cut mortgage deductions, pro-rated capital gains to grossly favor longer over short term investments, cut corporate welfare, and laid off 10% of the Federal workforce? The U.S. electorate would tar and feather him/her. Vive la France. Sarkozy is at least trying to deal with the real crisis.