
Macron’s Bad Math
For every retiree in France, there are 1.7 people in the workforce. In 1970 the ratio was one to four. By 2100, the number is projected to be one to one. Ostensibly in response to this looming crunch, on March 16 President Emmanuel Macron used a constitutional lever to push through a pension reform plan that raises the basic retirement age from sixty-two to sixty-four. The fallout has been dramatic: millions of protestors of all ages and across unions, garbage fires on the streets of Paris, blocked highways, and alarming police violence during the protests.
Macron and his defenders have called the reform a necessity.… Seguir leyendo »