Hi H_TexMex_H

You know... sometimes, really simple things, piled up along a continuous time span, build up to a very complex, and unmanageable situation...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_26_Incident

To discuss in depth what becomes to high in retirement pay is somewhat difficult .
Because it depend in with country you are living .
Sometimes it is a full state pension .
Sometimes it is fore a part a state pension plus a company pension .
The financing of the state pension differs from country to country .
The financing of company pension differs from company to company , and from country to country

I agree, that it could be a culmination of events or policies that can cause this, and it may be something like that ... they just refuse to take it up the * anymore. Good for them, I say, I just wanted to know more exact reasons.

As for the wiki link, there are not that many similarities, this is just a peaceful protest, not a coup. They say it is a riot, but that's only because they define riot as when they put the riot police out there.... and they have chosen to do that...

from http://www.spiegel.de/international/...724702,00.html

"But the conflict is no longer about the pension system, population pyramids or hardship cases, and hasn't been for a long time. The controversy over the pension reforms has become the flashpoint for a political showdown between the French government and people in the street, between Sarkozy and the French population. The dispute is a culmination of popular frustration with the work of the French president, who has even managed to alienate his own conservative voters with his aggressive manner and his verbal faux pas.

Sarkozy's unbending attitude over controversial tax cuts for the wealthy, a wave of scandals concerning spendthrift ministers and allegations of sleaze in relation to political appointments and party financing have all discredited a man who presented himself as head of state as an heir to France's legacy"

the people simply got fed up with the conservative direction that Sarkozy is tacking the country

I would be really pissed off if
I had to work 2 extra years so the rich could pay less taxes

Thanks, this was a good article, I think it is the closest to the truth ... again I applaud their efforts, maybe freedom is still alive in France if nowhere else.

P.S. To the French: keep protesting, force that charlatan to abdicate. Vive la Revolution !

Its not as simple as moving the retirement age. Now you need to have 42 years(or is it 45 ?) of contribution (taxes/working) before you get full pensions. That means if you start working at the age of 20, you will get pension at 62. For most technical/academic jobs you need degrees. That means by the time you start working you are already 24-29 bracket. That means you end up working until 66-70 years to get full pensions. And that's just one part of it.

The reason why there is not an equal reaction in USA and other places could be different welfare systems. USA people are angry about getting one. French are protesting to protect one.

Or that average Americans are too obese, brainwashed, high, and chemically intoxicated to be aware of anything around them ... much less think clearly.

Must have something to do with the fluoride don't you think? As well as altered food, and then fox'news' = obedient subservient society.

--edit

I think this sums it all up:

Well, yes, it has to do with all of these "conspiracies". After all, if the gubmint says it, it's a fact, and if someone questions this, it is a "conspiracy". Maybe it's like blue pill / red pill ?

I think it might be just that, like Morpheus said, some people are so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it. I'm still not exactly sure why. Maybe I can't understand people, maybe that's the problem, or maybe they cannot be understood (more likely). For a long time I refused to believe that people believed in gods, I thought they were just messing with me ... and you know, I still think this to some degree. Of course, that's just one example, there are more. I cannot be objective, nor can anyone, I just say what I subjectively think ... or maybe I'm just trolling.

Not trolling at all, this is actually the truth but those who are so indoctrinated would see it as trolling, in order to deny the very truth staring them right in their blank expressionless faces.

Lol, that pic that you added is great

still there moving back retirement to pay for a tax cut for the rich
in order to think for yourself you need information
we here in the US get celb gossip instead of information about what the government is doing
the only thing reported on in the local news that has any affect at all on peoples lives is the weather
the national news omits anything inconvenient to the conservative owners of the broadcasting companies
so here in the US the people who don't hunt down the information on the net don't have the information to think with so they go along with what ever the government dose
as a people we have become politically handicapped

For heaven's sake do the arithmetic. Using very round numbers, the average person starts work around 20 and dies around 80. If they want to retire at 60, that gives 2 years' work for every 1 year of retirement. If they want a pension equal to half their salary, that means paying 25% of their salary in contributions. Do they do that? No.

The reasons why the French riot at being asked to retire at 62 but the British, for example, don't riot at being asked to retire at 67 are various. The British are realists, the French are romantics. The British are law abiding, the French have a tradition of legitimised violence started by the Revolution. In Britain, only a minority of workers belong to unions. France has big unions, many of which were founded by the communists, and all of which like to demonstrate their muscle. Maybe in the USA you seldom hear about it, but throwing up barricades happens in France every year!

I have a question though, why haven't I heard at least a peep in protest of the proposed lifting of the tuition cap in the UK for education? Wouldn't it seem likely that if the tuition cap is lifted, over time, having a university education would become out of reach for more and more people, regardless if they make high marks? After all scholarships would only cover so much, and there is also books to pay for, room & board if the student is living on campus, etc.

Seems rather vulgar to have 'unlimited tuition fees', when obviously each year another x% is added, and then another and another, until only the filthy stinking rich can attend a university (and who are not necessarily academically qualified, like W. was when he bought his way into Yale & Harvard.)

I would disagree. In order to think for yourself, you need to to think for yourself. I don't think information is being spread by the media, not has it ever spread information, more like propaganda and disinformation.

The internet is the best source of information and propaganda just the same. You have to be able to separate the two, by thinking about it ... by trying to understand. The first step really is doubting everything you hear. Take the red pill.