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But what will you say when you are 60 or 65? These people are not contributing during retirement, but HAVE contributed in the past. In fact people pay (especia

But what will you say when you are 60 or 65? These people are not contributing during retirement, but HAVE contributed in the past. In fact people pay (especially in places like France) into a government retirement fund. And this happens over 20-40 years of work. This is a long time and if properly managed, should be fine. So people aren't just being given "free money", this is something that they have paid for and so they are protesting, because it's basically a kind of service that they have been promised in exchange for being taxed each pay check. But I still come back to the question of what you will do at retirement?

SoftTalker 4y ago
But it wasn’t properly managed. It was spent immediately, with IOUs written to replace it. There is no retirement “fund” in the way that word implies.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  That is the government's problem, not the workers'.
  - hungryforcodes 4y ago
    Hence the legit protests.
  - jbn 4y ago
    > There is no retirement “fund” in the way that word implies well, France really has 2 systems (to simplify, it's really more like 42+), the "public" one (i.e. civil servants) and the "private" one (i.e. anyone employed by an employer other than the state). The "public" retirement is based on the assumption that the state guarantees its liability for future pensions but doesn't actually put it on the books (if it did real debt would be another 2,000 billions euros), while the "private" retirement does have a "fund" (really several of them, one per sector of the economy) but it's revolving money put in by the current workforce but paying immediately current pensioners. This second system can in theory have excess money (but every time it does, a law is passed to extract some more money out of it to the benefit of the first!). Part of the issue in France is the existence of these 2 systems and the very fact that the state allows itself to do its accounting differently (in a way that unlawful for anybody else). If at least the state played by the same rules... (of course then it would have to recognize this extra debt of 2,000 billions euros, and that would disqualify the country from the eurozone!). But in short, yes it is very much the government's problem. They (since 1945) have "organized" pensions in a way that makes them a time bomb both in its accounting, and in its unjust rules (rules vary a lot per sector of the economy).
prakhar897 4y ago
The people should themselves be managing their retirement corpus. Some would become rich, some would be poor but in the end they won't take money off the taxpayers. Instead they gave their money to governments who immediately consumed, mismanaged, gave it to themselves and while kicking the can down the road with cheap loans. Now, current governments are left with old people with no money demanding benefits and young people getting taxed into poverty.
- hungryforcodes 4y ago
  But why are the young people blaming old people and not the government? And trying to fix it? Oh wait, the whole article is about protests in France, where they are asking for change, instead of just blaming old people -- which is easy.

SoftTalker 4y ago

But it wasn’t properly managed. It was spent immediately, with IOUs written to replace it. There is no retirement “fund” in the way that word implies.

tsimionescu 4y ago
That is the government's problem, not the workers'.
- hungryforcodes 4y ago
  Hence the legit protests.
- jbn 4y ago
  > There is no retirement “fund” in the way that word implies well, France really has 2 systems (to simplify, it's really more like 42+), the "public" one (i.e. civil servants) and the "private" one (i.e. anyone employed by an employer other than the state). The "public" retirement is based on the assumption that the state guarantees its liability for future pensions but doesn't actually put it on the books (if it did real debt would be another 2,000 billions euros), while the "private" retirement does have a "fund" (really several of them, one per sector of the economy) but it's revolving money put in by the current workforce but paying immediately current pensioners. This second system can in theory have excess money (but every time it does, a law is passed to extract some more money out of it to the benefit of the first!). Part of the issue in France is the existence of these 2 systems and the very fact that the state allows itself to do its accounting differently (in a way that unlawful for anybody else). If at least the state played by the same rules... (of course then it would have to recognize this extra debt of 2,000 billions euros, and that would disqualify the country from the eurozone!). But in short, yes it is very much the government's problem. They (since 1945) have "organized" pensions in a way that makes them a time bomb both in its accounting, and in its unjust rules (rules vary a lot per sector of the economy).

prakhar897 4y ago

The people should themselves be managing their retirement corpus. Some would become rich, some would be poor but in the end they won't take money off the taxpayers. Instead they gave their money to governments who immediately consumed, mismanaged, gave it to themselves and while kicking the can down the road with cheap loans. Now, current governments are left with old people with no money demanding benefits and young people getting taxed into poverty.

hungryforcodes 4y ago
But why are the young people blaming old people and not the government? And trying to fix it? Oh wait, the whole article is about protests in France, where they are asking for change, instead of just blaming old people -- which is easy.