The title would suggest I'm going to write about something kid-related, right?
Wrong.
Today's amusing/confusing thought for the day concerns the strike.
As we know, today was a national strike day here in France, the issue being "We defend the right to retire at 60!"
A large chunk of the public sector was on strike, and those of us who work in the private sector were given the choice. Either sit tight and work, or pack up at 2 p.m. and go out to PROTEST!
There are 19 of us in my office. Out of those 19, eight people chose to go on strike.
Up till now, nothing unusual.
Except, when 2 o'clock struck and the strikers left, something rather amusing struck (sorry for the pun) me:
The eight strikers were all aged over 60!!
And the rest of us - the "younger generation" - the ones who will actually be affected by the extended retirement age - simply shrug our shoulders and accept that, as life expectancy increases, we may just have to keep working a little longer. Or, as a fellow 32-year old colleague and I remarked: "come on! We have nearly 10 weeks holiday a year... Is it really so unreasonable to ask us to work a little longer over the course of a lifetime?"
But the really head-scratching question is: if all my 60+ colleagues think it's so important to be able to retire at 60... er.... how come none of them has chosen to retire yet?!
These are the privileged people who actually CAN retire at 60 if they choose!
As far as I can see then (and please correct me if I have missed some political nuance - it's entirely possible!): my 60+ colleagues are defending their right to do something they don't actually want to do?
Or, defending MY generation's right to do something we don't feel the need to do?
It's all quite confusing.
Or perhaps the point is simply... to protest.
I mean, come on. We can't just let the government get away with it. Can we?
2 comments:
Ahhh, that really is amusing. And of course, I'm glad your colleague appreciates their holidays... ;o)
Maybe your old colleagues just like not working (and not being paid).
Or maybe they have a young member of their family working in car manufacturing or in construction and they don't want them to be working during the best years of their retirement.
Or they are just fed up with the government.
I'm actually quite impressed that someone can give up half a day of salary for a topic he/she is not affected by.
But you're pointing out the effect of two combined things on our generation versus the older: we grew up with mass unemployement which made us happy just to get a job (whithout being to exacting), and in the 90's liberalism has won against socialism which made us more egoistic and less active in politics than our elders.
Pascal
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