Posted 10/22/2010

THE FRENCH JUST HATE TO WORK

The protests and riots in France show that the average Frenchman really, really hates to work.

When the cash-strapped government proposed raising the early retirement age from 60 to 62, all hell broke loose.

Because only 15 percent of Frenchmen continue to work after their 59th birthdays, it's a really big emotional problem.

How can the government expect the French to work an extra two years?

After all, the French love leisure more than freedom.

While most of the French protested with peaceful marching, a small nasty minority engaged in wholesale, destructive rioting.

Cars were burned.

Workers were kept out of airports, which resulted in passengers being forced to carry their own bags out of the planes.

Blockades shut down the roads carrying fuel trucks, knocking most of the country back into the cart and carry age.

Garbage collection virtually ceased, making Paris smell like New York City in August.

All of France is being shut down.

Will the government give in?

It usually does, but this time it cannot – unless it wants to go broke and crush the euro.

This is especially alarming since scientists now predict that 50 percent of all children born in rich countries this century will live to be 100.  (France is one of those "rich" countries.)

How do the French live out their lives now?

The first 25 years are spent being supported by maman and papa.

The next 35 years are spent working.

The next 40 years will be spent being supported by their tax-paying children and grandchildren.

The arithmetic is frightening to the French government.

The French will spend 35 percent of their lives working, and the remaining 65 percent being supported by their parents, children and grandchildren.

How many Frenchmen will be able to make enough money in 35 years to pay enough taxes to pay for 40 years of retirement leisure?

It could only be accomplished by reducing the living standard by 50 percent or more.

And nobody wants to propose that.

In all this, there is a lesson for America.

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