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Comment by usrbinbash | Hacker News Reader

No! Yes! Oh.

But rest assured, it's not just the libertarians and not just in the US.

Europe is currently facing shortages of skilled labour in many sectors of industry and business, what with the baby boomers entering retirement age in droves. Market forces of supply and demans would dictate that since the resource (skilled labour) demand increases, and the supply decreases, the price (wages) has to go ... upwards.

Basic economic theory of free markets.

So, does that happen? With few exceptions, nope. Wages continue to stagnate. Instead, lobbyists clamour for slashing social security to make part time jobs and retirement less desirable.

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The retirement age must rise with life expectancy. Anything else is a transfer of wealth from the young to the old, which I assume sounds great if one is a boomer who destroyed the golden-egg-laying goose.

However, you’re right about market forces in European salaries.

Is this the reason behind France trying to increase retirement age despite having a balanced budget in this regard and protests?

Basically yes.

Yes, absolutely.

You can imagine you’ve worked your whole life chasing the brass ring. And then the government goes, “lol, just kidding!”, and moves the goal posts 50 meters. And this affects millions of people who are very pissed off and vocal about it.

If the reason stated above is true, it's quite the dick move to do so.

My parents worked a few years into retirement, but that was only because my country's pension budget is far from balanced, so they needed the extra income.

Yes, as we should be. This is infuriating, other options available ( reduce pensions, remove tax breaks… ) have barely been discussed.

Adding 24 months is the only presented option. I’ve discuss with people ready to strike for a while, since they are gonna have to work 2 more years otherwise.

And that’s on top of the fact that the budget it’s kinda fine. Needs attention, sure, but the entity governing it says it’s fine. ( independent from the gov )

> And this affects millions of people who are very pissed off and vocal about it.

I wonder how pissed these people would be if the government continued to pretend that everything is fine, did nothing, and in a few years the pension system simply crashes, due to being no longer feasible.

The current system in many european country relies on assumptions that were true in the 60s and 70s, when many of these systems basics were designed: Continuous population growth generating net positives in the pension funds, a certain life expectancy, and taxable incomes rising with economic power.

None of these assumptions hold true any more: Population growth has stalled or even reversed, people live a lot longer, and incomes stagnate despite decades of economic growth.

So the systems can either be adjusted, or they will stop functioning at some point. Even if the budgets are balanced at the moment, the factors listed above are not going to change in the other direction. Sooner or later, adjustments need to take into account the new reality.

No, it's because we live longer, have fewer children to support us and increase the population size that doesn't contribute net positive to the welfare state. It's pure economics.

France's pension does not have a balanced budget. It will soon run out of money without the proposed changes.

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