The French Retirement Age

Again (and it galls me to say it) France is showing what this country needs to do for a major problem

France poised to raise retirement age

Expectations are growing that France is set to remove the right to retire at 60, as it embarks on a contentious reform of its debt-laden pension system and brings public finances back into line...

...The government is expected to announce its planned reforms next month and expects to have a draft bill before parliament by September. Nicolas Sarkozy, president, has made pensions the last big reform of his government before the campaign for the next presidential election in 2012 gets under way.

All but one of France’s five main unions have rejected suggestions that the retirement age should be increased, favouring instead taxes to fill a deficit expected to hit €32bn this year, as much as €45bn in 2020 and possibly more than €100bn in 2050.

...A similar percentage of respondents agreed that the retirement age needed to be raised from 60 to 62.

After the oil shock of the mid 70s, France switched to nuclear for its electric power. It now gets 85% of its electricity from atomic plants. The US…we’ve gone from 25% of our oil coming from the Middle East to over 50%...and getting a nuke plant built is an act of God.

When Social Security was imposed on the American people, the average life span was around 62 years…and you got full benefits at 65…now people live to 80. We started to move the retirement age to 67 and we need to get that up to at least 75… but I don’t see that happening with the current administration and their efforts to bankrupt the country.