Life expectancy in France is on average 4 and a 1/2 years longer than in America and the average French person now lasts 14 years longer than they did in 1960.
Yet once again a government has fallen over the rabid hatred of an increase in the retirement age by just 1.5 years to 64.
The state just cannot afford that kind of largesse and yet the demands from the fractured political party system are to listen to the pensioners come what may and fight to keep just about the most generous pension system in the world going.
Yet government debt is already well over 100% and rising at 6% a year, meanwhile the left seems to have won the argument that the solution is some kind of wealth tax.
Well, that might bring in a lot of money but it is not going to reverse an escalating debt crisis. Only policies like increasing the pension age and spending far less will do that.
But try not to feel too superior, in the UK attempts to take the winter fuel allowance off those who have never needed it failed and the pension triple lock, which just about everyone knows full well is a millstone round the government’s finances and totally unaffordable, is now immortal.
As the population ages the power of the elderly increases and so to does their selfishness. They already don’t pay NI, want inheritance tax abolished and will soon be demanding income tax cuts and free care homes for all. Just so they can leave more money to their children, who whisper it if you dare, have done nothing to earn a penny of the money most of which accumulated tax free as property prices rose.
But don’t worry, the young poor will just pay higher taxes so that the elderly can save more of their money.
From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
Demographics ruling our politics. Not a good look
In the global North people live longer as birth rates fall. A shrinking working population supports a growing non-working one. Possible solutions to an unsustainable condition. 1. Wealth tax. 2. Reduce pension benefits. 3. Encourage immigration of working age people from the global South. Or a combination of all.