Originally published at: French president uses special powers to impose pension age increase without parliamentary vote | Boing Boing
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This risk-averse pathological careerist just risked a no-confidence vote (one he should lose in a real democratic system) in order to screw over all French people under age 64. That’s an indicator of what a priority this kind of betrayal of entitlement programme promises is to any Western politician who subscribes to neoliberal ideology.
Put another way for BB’s American readership, if Macron is willing to do this in France, establishment Republicans in the U.S. (eventually aided by a subset of chin-stroking Third Way establishment Dems) won’t be far behind when it comes to SSI and Medicare.
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Il est pain grillé.
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Maybe, maybe not. He’s assuming he can make the parliamentary math work in his favour, but we’ll see. The extraordinary thing is that he took the risk at all.
It’s also worth pointing out that Le Pen’s right-wing populists (AKA fascists) are going to seize on opposition to this move to recruit new voters outraged by the actions of this member of the “liberal” elites. Their position will be that the problem is not an aging society but rather one that gives too many benefits to immigrants, minorities, women, etc.
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Racists gonna racist.
If anyone to the left of him doesn’t use it as a weapon they deserve to die in fire.
Immigration isn’t particularly high in France, it’s about 50% higher in Germany or Ireland, what the racists really hate in France is actual French people who don’t conform to their idea of what French is.
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“We cannot take the risk of seeing 175 hours of parliamentary debate collapse,” That’s definitely the most compelling reason to invoke special powers I’ve seen in quite a while…
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I wish the BBC and other outlets wouldn’t call this a “pension reform”. Using that anodyne term elides the more newsworthy fact that the followers of neoliberal doctrine in the advanced Western economies are at last emboldened to make their final assault on the welfare state and national social safety nets.
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I’m sure I’m being naïve here, but isn’t the idea that’s best for society to lower the retirement age so that people can enjoy their final years? I see zero upside to forcing people to work longer. Depending on the job of course, but the older you get the less likely you are to do quality work. See the US Congress for as many examples as you need.
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No, silly! That would necessitate monies being in social security schemes and pension funds for the benefit of working people, instead of being used for bragging rights and personal spaceships for billionaires like it’s supposed to be.
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I assume that they’ve already arranged a plan to move the pension-related savings into the security forces to avoid a repetition of that.
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I won’t argue with anyone who calls this reform a shit move, as it hits the wrong people hardest. However, I do think the current system in France is in need of a refurb and reform.
France is very much in trouble with its pension system.
ETA typo.
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Ask and the French people will provide.
As their pension finances are so parlours, you know what they should do to finance?
Immigrants.
Loads and loads of immigrants would pay for the aging population and revitalise the economy.
As an aside France has taken even fewer Ukrainian refugees than the UK (last I checked anyway). And in case you were wondering the number of refugees Britain accepts is the square root of fuck all. For France, which is in continental Europe and connected by land to all the countries taking the bulk of refugees to have taken in fewer is absolutely shocking.
ETA
Lots of videos of French protestors and riot police rioting.
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