Loading ...French Strikes A Cautionary Tale For US
“The government is already dead in the eyes of the French; it doesn’t have any legitimacy anymore…”
Thursday marked the ninth day of inter-union national strikes since the bill was introduced in January, days of protest in which virtually every French union member participates. Transportation, sanitation, and energy unions, however, have been on daily renewable strikes since March 7. Trains and planes arriving to, departing from, and crossing over France are experiencing major delays and cancelations. Teachers are walking off the job. The stench of weeks-old trash mingles with pain au chocolat.
The vast majority of strikers and protestors in France are two-to-four decades from retirement age. And while the United States is perhaps too sprawling, diverse, and individualistic to experience crippling national strikes, Congress need only to look across the Atlantic Ocean to understand just how serious people are about their government benefits.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/french-strikes-cautionary-tale-us
The lesson I take from this is that never depend on the government for your benefits. A lot of what the French are protesting about has to do with the entitlement mentality and socialism. Yes I would be pissed if I was going to be retiring soon and they just changed the rules in midstream. But people that are 20 to 40 years away from retirement should be protesting to start private pension plans/private retirement plans, preferably self-directed.