Our retirement age just went up — so why aren't we as angry as the French?
Our retirement age just went up — so why aren't we as angry as the French?
Since Saturday, Australians have been required to wait until the age of 67 until they can get the age pension. It has happened with little protest — a stark contrast to the demonstrations and riots that have rocked France, writes Peter Whiteford.
We're too apathetic in general.
23r/australia deciding to stay open during the Reddit blackout was the perfect summary of Aussie culture.
"Yeah nah we totally support this, but we're not actually going to do anything about it mate"
26r/Australia was the epicenter of virtue signaling. As long as they got good karma from it would matter to them.
2
The French have a social contract between generations, and workers actually pay pensions from their salary into a separate fund - ie not as PAYG.
So why are they angry? They don’t put with shit.
You gotta remember that 220 years ago they introduced democracy by overthrowing and guillotining their whole ruling class.
21I realize your meant to say they introduced democracy to France, because democracy as a concept existed long before France was a country.
-1It's not democracy unless it's from the democratique region of France, otherwise it's just sparkling voting.
18
The age to get the Aged Pension is not the same thing as the retirement age. Our pension works as more of a safety net and top-up to Super, in France it is paid from the salary and expected to be the main income. We can access our Super from 60, and as the amount of time it has been compulsory (and the amount put in by employers) increases the age at which the pension is available becomes less relevant.
14Real answer here: The French have social connections. They have large extended families and friends and they all hang out and eat bread or some shit. That's where they talk about all this stuff. We have atomic families and slowly lose our friends and we barely talk about anything other than sport or drink. Our institutions like universities are built for profit. Our lifestyles are wire-thin, we work way too hard, and this means we don't have the connective tissue to form a society; we're just a bunch of individuals.
12The retirement age didn’t go up, the age in which you can claim the aged pension went up, you can still retire at 65 and live on your superannuation if you want.
10You can access your Super from 60. Full access if you retire, or as a Transition to Retirement plan if you are still working.
3
They've not been bludgeoned by the Murdoch press for decades telling them that business needs trump everything else. We couldn't possibly increase taxes to pay for increased costs, it has to come from cuts.
5tax the super rich? nah mate. they wouldn't be able to afford their 2nd superyacht. I'll just lave this here
3
I think the answer rhymes with poopert burpdoch.
5Could it just be because the French are more angry than we are? They seem to love a violent protest.
5I mean it’s not like peaceful protest ever really seem to get any thing done these days.
11