No, they are concerned about changes being made to pension arrangements - presumably ones they have been paying into their working lives.
And plan on collecting way more than they ever put in while retiring at a young age and living to 90. I'm sorry they believed in a fairy tale, and thought their children could afford to deliver it.
Frankly I know very little about it. What I would say is that if it is anything like what it is here then people do put in a lot and they put that in in an agreement that they will get whatever the agreement is. If a change is to be made then they have the right to be involved in the discussions concerning that not just have it imposed on them. If France does not have the money to pay them, if that is what you are suggesting, then that brings me back to what I said earlier. The problem is that neo liberalism is defunct. Countries no longer speak of the future. Have you noticed that? The future has to be us dealing with the climate emergency which will change the way we live. ...and...it would appear governments find that very threatening. It is time they were honest. As XR says 'tell the truth'.
Yes it is, because it is corporatism at its rotten core, and the people voted for it. The corporatists in gov and industry reaped the bounty and the rest are stuck with a heap of crap, wondering what happened to them. And, they're being told capitalism is the reason, when the system is clearly not capitalism, but rather, corporatism.
I would agree with you there. It stems from Thatcher/Regan and ending regulations - interestingly things which were seen as necessary to keep capitalism working with democracy from WW2. What the taking away of these regulations has done has allowed ever growing monopolies to take ever more of the wealth - and half of them are doing that by destroying the planet!!!! So when neo liberalism showed itself not to be working in 2008 what did we do. We decided we would bail out the bankers and let them carry on as before - except of course Iceland who put them in jail. Arguably since that time we can no longer talk of our system as Capitalism. At least in capitalism, and of course there are still a few small actors, but in capitalism you do take a risk, you can lose. Nowadays every contract is built in with ways in which Corporate Power can sue you if you do not give them what they want. They cannot lose. Only the customer can. Some political scientists are suggesting we are now entering a new feudal era. Corporate Power or Neo Liberalism results in ever increasing inequality seen in the US as much as everywhere else. I don't believe the people of France voted for this. I believe they had little choice. Again as I said earlier at the time people were seen as having a choice of Le Penn or Macron...and as I also said people were suggesting if Macron did not do what is necessary which is radical change built on the truth, built on reality, it could well leave the door open to the extreme right in France - that is people rather than meeting and working with the situation we find ourselves in, feeling happy instead to take it out on others they wrongly blame for it - as suggested by the propaganda of the supporters of Corporate Power The big problem most places, the US and France for instance is that most politicians regardless of values support this defunct economic system. In the UK Corbyn's Labour Party would move out of it and it has received far more trash propaganda against it than the far right ever received. Addressing the defunct economic system seems to be the most scary thing for Politicians who more and more seem to be funded by the most wealthy to serve them not the people. I was hearing very recently that in I think 2013 your Supreme Court decided it was ok for Corporations to be considered as people. This apparently gave them great power by allowing them to give massive political donations with which they could shape the Political position of the US and obviously this reduced your democracy.
Sure they did, under the guise of the promise of free stuff. How governments solidify their power base and acquire the revenues from which they distribute the largesse to their corporatist partners. A never ending, self reinforcing ball of crap.
What 'free stuff' did Macron offer them? What 'power base' did Macron have? I trust you are aware that all the centrist parties in Europe are falling down the shoot. Do you believe the people of France deserve to be harmed because they did not vote for Le Pen?
But the question is why the final choice came down between Le Penn or Macron. The fact is, the collective political will to vote for Hollande (Socialist) again did not exist. Also, I believe Hollande lost some voters to Le Penn, but it was not very many of them.
If I wanted to weaken Europe, I would let the EU stay together, let their economy drown in burdensome regulations imposed from higher up bureaucracy, flood the region with as many migrants as possible from the Third World until they were unnable to cope, and free government services became overwhelmed and unemployment went up. Create mass poverty so Europe would be too preoccupied with their own problems to be worried about getting involved in international policies. That's kind of the situation in India.
The EU is a body of banking whores sucking the lifeblood out of the citizens of european nations, while entrenching themselves is power and massively enriching themselves and those who shuffle paper, producing nothing of value. Additionally they spread death and destruction to other nations, solidifying their control
Just curious as to why you are trying to blame the people of France and that is no answer to my questions. Here is the situation. 44 or so different Government pension schemes depending on job. People in job usually get a pension of half their highest salary Pension age 62. Here is the change being suggested. Retirement age still 62 but lose part of your pension if you retire before 64. Get more if you retire later. Retirement pension half of the average of your lifetime earnings - much much lower than now. Some are concerned they are all going to get the same pension - doctors and street cleaners. anyway, massive drop in pensions and it is understandable that in a democracy which France unlike the US is the people will not take this lying down.
It started when he was alive. In may 68 when there is a big leftist uprising they called him a "fascist". Ironically, when many leftists compromised with the nazis, he decided to not abandon the fight. (I'm french). There is a lot of far left. Yes, there is a lot of people which believe there in the nanny states and think that the government could provide unlimited stuff. However, it's clear that the politics during those last decades was extremly violent to the most poor people. I think one of the big problem of the french state is that he tried to assume a lot of missions : education, security, hospitals, retirement system. I'm far to be a minarchist (people which want a government as small as possible), however, I'm afraid that the more a government try to assume missions, the more he could fail in each of this missions. What happens is that the government start to fail in every of this missions. It's clear that Macron is the faithfull servant not of the french people, but of the banks, the big corporations and the richest. A lot of people in France are tired : The police, the hospital personal, the teachers, a lot of people are starting to get enough. There is a rise of violent behavour or discourtesy (an euphemism). I don't see any easy solutions to all those problems.
Exactly how do you see something which people have paid into all their lives on the agreement that they would benefit when they are old as free stuff from a nanny state? which is the situation throughout the West except that it is everyone's standard of living and lifes chances apart from the top 1% which have been deteriorating. That is neo liberalism in action. Education is necessary to the State to provide the adults it wants. In the 20th C it was also seen as a way whereby people could get social mobility - though this stopped around the time neo liberalism came in. In the US they are now privatising education and England sells theirs out to bidders. I think they call them free schools or academys. I would guess this is because the future they see is not one where they will require an educated workforce. Of course you are aware that something else will be moving in to mess all these last attempts at building the new aristocracy! Security. Well never even mind the people, those in power wish to keep power. I have recently been thinking though that in a couple of ways Macron does have his head screwed on right. One to keep the EU going and 2 for the EU to have it's own security independent of the US. Now for any kind of 'freedom' you do need to be able to keep yourself secure. I am not sure what you are saying here. However I do remember reading that one of the reasons the UK was having so much trouble trying to negotiate about Brexit was because it has sold off so much of Government it does not know where what it needs is. In addition where things have been privatised they have become much more expensive and corrupt. There is basically in the UK, probably US and possibly some in the EU a fight between the elite at the moment and the elite of two types. The Hedge Funders who are just after what they can get for themselves, know the end is coming and do not give a damn for anyone else. They will have totalitarian states in before you can blink. There are also the Centrists who I imagine Macron is one of who go with the banks and both are in bed with Corporate Power. Now they have problems of course. They will not admit neo liberalism is over....but the banker friends do acknowledge the climate emergency and they do acknowledge within that that much of how we have lived is over. They see themselves as human beings and want the populace to have as good a quality of life as possible. They do have a social conscience...but they will not acknowledge that neo liberalism is over and they will not deal with the climate emergency as needs to be done. Because they do acknowledge the climate situation Paul Mason believes the left should work with them but on that they are impossible pretending the left is the same as the Hedge funders so again not sure how to resolve that one. Oh by the way did you know that prior to Macron's announcement about the majority's position re pensions, he sorted out a Pension agreement with the Police which they were happy with.
People pay high taxes yes, but there is a lack of balance between what we get and what we receive. If government service is financed by public debt, then it's putting the futur generations into slavery. I tend to believe that the collapse theory is accurate. We build our economy as ever expanding without thinking to the ressources. Yet the ressources aren't infinite, even human ressources tend to be exhausted, people do more and more burnout are more stressed and people sleep less. The model of our societies is outdated. I don't deny that point. Education is one of the most important mission of a nation. The glory of a nation can be measured on how much care we spend toward every children. Education is the most important pillar of a nation, either the state education (schools) or private (the care that parents take toward their children). I don't says that everything should be private, I just observe a problem : the more missions an organization try to assume, the more likely it will be to fail in every of those missions. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't try to assume many missions, but at least be aware of that issue. I know a lot of people who mind this, especially poor people. Between 1960 to 1980, crimes rate tripled in France. Beyond those numbers, that mean that some district knew an explosion of crimes by a rate of ten or even twenty, where comfortables district didn't knew any increase of crimes. When it comes to security, that's there is the biggest inequality. A lot of left winged partis hate to speak of security, yet, it's one of the most important issues. I have recently been thinking though that in a couple of ways Macron does have his head screwed on right. One to keep the EU going and 2 for the EU to have it's own security independent of the US. Now for any kind of 'freedom' you do need to be able to keep yourself secure. That's not my point. I don't says that things should go private or stay public. Economical dogmatism is useless. Like I said, there is no easy solution or magical tool to solve nowodays problem. I think in the end that democracy isn't about elections. Democracy is when a people is united and is determined to not be a victim of the political power but an actor of it. In that spirit is democracy.
I do acknowledge that it is difficult for the Government to keep the deal it made to people when it took from them money all of their working life on the promise that this would secure a good retirement. I acknowledge that. That however does not mean that the people who basically have been robbed be happy about it or accept it. They have been stolen from. I also heard that in France it used to be considered a situation of working together and the young giving to the old which would happen to them one day and that the young do not want to give to the old because they do not believe it will be there for them. Hence the people who are being harmed are the people who spent their adult life paying in while their money was given to give the old of that time a good retirement, one which now they are being told they cannot have. They have every right to be angry. In the UK this situation was sorted out so that those paying in for professional pensions now pay in more, will get less and as my daughter says probably will not get not even get a retirement. She has worked out she will be about 73 before she gets it. The reality is that probably within 20 years our lives are going to be so different anyway that anything which is being worked out now will be obsolete. It remains that people coming up to retirement now who paid in all their lives have every right to be miffed as they are being done. I don't know collapse theory. If you are talking about neo liberalism. It is pretty much the system which was working prior to WW2 and why it was recognised it and in particular Monopolies had to go. It is a system of corporate power which sits well with fascism and it has gradually been mind infiltrating us since the 80's. We are in agreement with respect of children and education. I think possibly it is best for local authorities to deal with that. It should not be too difficult for them to know what is needed in their area. I think all education should be State education because I believe everyone deserves as much of the same chance as possible. In addition it is found in the UK that in State Schools where the better off attend they tend to also make sure the school works well. By the way where I live now has longer holidays than most of Scotland. The reason for that is because the schools used to close so that the kids could go and dig up the tatties and strawberries. They no longer do that but they still get more holidays than say Edinburgh where they never did that. You should listen to some of Timothy Snider's lectures on the Road to Unfreedom. He would argue there never was a Nation State of France. That is a Myth and a very dangerous one which could deprive Europe of a possible good future. With respect to crimes. You would need to do investigations into the reasons for them and how you could change this. No democracy is about everyone having an equal vote and equal rights. One vote for all, same rights for all. It is true that you can have a vote and not have a democracy. For instance in the West for some time now our Leaders answer to the wealthy few and not to the people so while we have a vote our Governments are not serving us - and the reason for that is that for Democracy to be able to work with Capitalism it is the duty of Government not to allow Capitalism to have to much power - for instance Monopolies. That is how we were working along Kenysian lines and what was given up with Thatcher/Regan's neo liberalism. It should not surprise you that the inventors of Neo Liberalism did not like Democracy.
No. I didn't saw that particular video, but it seems to expose correctly the theory of collapse : WARNING : this is not for psychologically fragile people. That would be a whole debate. That's more complicate than that, that would deserve a whole debate. We should first define what's a nation state and so on. I disagree. There was a lot of instance where people could "vote" yet their vote wasn't considered. For rights yes, but I consider that rights come with duties. I tend to consider that at the moment there is a professionnal politician class, we tend to go farther of the democracy and closer to an oligarchy. Furthermore, a lot of elected people tend to not actually serve the people. Furthermore, the partis always rule in their own interest and not of the global interest. I'm more in favour of sortition than vote, even if vote can have it's usefullness.
They will always be stolen from, that's what those in power do, yet humans fall for this ruse over and over again. Here in the USA our nation is already much more insolvent than any of the European nations were when they embarked on their welfare states, yet the people are falling for it. But like all governments do, it will find innocent scapegoats and many innocent people will be harmed in its attempt to hold onto power
What's happening in France is what always happens when the people who vote for socialism get handed the bill.
Because people never question the perceived benevolence of their governments until it's too late. Enabling those who would promise a fairly tale, anticipating something for nothing, is your own fault. Why do humans fall for this ****? Nobody gives you anything. Stop voting for it
It was not something for nothing. It was paid for for up to 40 years. It was an agreement just like you would have with an insurance society.l I pay £80 a month for 40 years and then I get a good pension. People still get pensions you know. I just think you are being totally crazy over this. Ah no of course I have got you. No taxes. People either look after themselves or die. People either pay for medical insurance or if they are unfortunate and get cancer in their 30's they should die. People either manage to find a job which will allow them to afford a home in the US or they sleep on the street. The continual increase in inequality should carry on and all but the 1% will be dead - global warming will do that for you anyway and Trump knows that. Feel big as you sink. see if I care. The wonderful American Dream of no community. You made your bed and you are lying in it. The French people may not get as big a pension but they sure as hell will get one when the people who need it in the states will just die while you laugh over them.
