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Posted on 09/14/2025 4:45:31 AM PDT by fluorescence
What do Theresa May and Andy Burnham have in common with Michel Barnier, François Bayrou and Emmanuel Macron? All five were admirably honest with the public about the trade-offs inherent in financing an ageing society, and all five were duly punished for their candour by the public, the press, opposition politicians or all three.
The past two decades of French and British politics are a graveyard of proposals to slow the upward ratchet of spending on growing elderly populations. The same two decades of French and British fiscal balances show the results. Public disbursements to older citizens have climbed higher and faster than in peer countries, and debt-to-GDP ratios have followed suit.
[snip]
Not only do French pensioners receive larger cheques from the government than their counterparts anywhere else in the west, they start getting them several years earlier. The result is a situation in which over-65s now have higher average incomes than the working age population — unique both internationally and in France’s own history.
Even the rumour of threats to this arrangement is met with mass public outrage and opposition from left and right. Macron’s proposal to nudge the retirement age up towards the lower end of western norms was met with nationwide protests. Barnier’s suggestion of a six-month delay to the latest scheduled increase in pension payments led to the first of two collapsed governments in the past 10 months. Bayrou’s refusal to scrap the same pledges brought about the second.
In a particularly stunning statistic highlighted by French political analyst François Valentin, pensions play such an outsized role in the country’s public finances that they accounted for one-sixth of the ministry of defence budget last year, and without them France would not meet Nato’s 2 per cent target for military spending.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
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Oh those baby boomers.
Hohoho.
In a particularly stunning statistic highlighted by French political analyst François Valentin,
<><>govt-paid pensions play an outsized role in the country’s public finances
<><>they accounted for one-sixth of the ministry of defence budget last year,
<><>without them France would not meet Nato’s 2 per cent target for military spending.
FYI——NATO’s long-standing target has been for member countries to spend 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defense annually, a guideline established in 2014. However, NATO leaders agreed in June 2025 to more than double this to a new target of 5% of GDP by 2035.
Key Aspects of the 2% Target (now being superseded)
The 2% target was a guideline to ensure members contributed to common defense, signaling political resolve and boosting military readiness after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
It was a benchmark, and though not legally binding, it became a focal point for public discourse and a gauge of political commitment to the alliance’s core task of European security.
This guideline included a “2/20” component, meaning 2% of GDP for defense, and at least 20% of that defense budget allocated to major equipment and research & development.
The New 5% Target
In June 2025, NATO members agreed to a new, more demanding target of 5% of GDP by 2035, as stated in a joint declaration from the summit in The Hague.
This “historic” shift reflects a renewed focus on military preparedness in the face of evolving and persistent security threats, particularly from Russia.
Allies committed to providing annual plans to show a credible, incremental path to reaching this 5% goal.
Not nearly as extreme as many state and muni government employee unions here in the US.
Baby Boomers in the US are richer than their parents were (normal), and also their children are not as well off as their parents were at the same age. Not normal.
Many Baby Boomers will say that they fully deserve their wealth. They worked hard. They struggled in the post-WWII economy, growing up in a time when most countries had been devastated, but American industry was still intact. Our stock market boomed, major new industries sprang up, companies offered good pensions and other benefits, and government spending constantly greased the wheels of industry, health care was cheap and housing was affordable. It wasn't easy growing up in such a time, but Baby Boomers worked hard, succeeded hugely and built up a lot of wealth.
Now the Zoomers are whining that America has been fundamentally transformed by Obama and other Progressives. Ha! Ha! Ha! Sucks to be you!! I got mine! Baby Boomers rule! No sympathy for the children and grandchildren! If you were smart, like me, you would have been born in the 1950s! But you chose poorly and were born in the 21st century! Stupid move on your part! Next time don't shop at Starbucks and you can be rich like me!
Sarcasm aside: it is one of my fundamental beliefs that young people today are growing up in a difficult time. $40T national debt, lots of regulations, social media rotting brains, starter homes selling for $1M in some locations. A lot of young people (men especially) are leaning Conservative. The assassination of Charlie Kirk is likely to get more young people interested in Conservatism.
And yet I see a lot of older Conservatives who seem to have no empathy or sympathy for young people. The older ones think they are the victims. They struggled. Their first home. bought in 1980 had a 19% mortgage. And a price tag of $70,000. I've seen older Conservatives (right here) laugh in scorn at any young person who can't scrape up the money to buy a house at today's prices. Get a second job!! Get a third job!! You're lazy!
We could win friends for the future if we showed a little more empathy.
They spend money on boutique wars of choice to expand power, aid everywhere but home, flood in tens of millions of Africans and moslems of the most backwards types who all live on welfare in public housing. They even pay for the boats to carry them there…
But those damned old white retireees…. that’s what the big problem is.
My ex-wife is french living back in Paris after retirement, she is making about 90% of her old paycheck.
Also these same societies have killed their economies with tree green global warming and outsourcing to China scams. The have killed the birth rates with feminism, state atheism, homosexuality etc, so there are no kids and you get an older population.
So you get old childless multimillionaires like Theresa May, Macron, Boris, Merkel and the others thinking they could send even more to Ukraine if those damned retirees would just die. Their covid didn’t kill enough…
Eff then and their WEF week long parties.
“ But those damned old white retirees…. that’s what the big problem is.”
Em. We kinda let it happen. It needs to be fixed.
Kinda, kinda not. These green X kids are not simply helpless victims. The start of the problems was after Reagan our Government strip mined our manufacturing and sent it to China and started 3 decades of war. But the minute they achieve voting age, and even before, the Gen X kids have massively supported feminism, childless lifestyle, homosexuality, atheism world travel instead of starting a family or buying a house.
They didn’t get the ball rolling, but they’ve made them all impossible to stop. Enthusiastically so. And now they stand there like a victim because they can’t have a giant house. I don’t completely blame them, but at this point they’ve got a huge measure of responsibility. They vote for socialism and even outright communism every chance they get.
Conversely, boomers are not universally guilty as they like to say. Boomers work hard, played by the rules, and are having a lot of this crap inflicted on them by the younger generations. So go live in a minivan and blog about their childless life as far as I care. At some point they have to be part of the solution. They stand there pointing fingers all doing everything they can to make the problem remain.
Like we are much different. Why did Congress pass the Medicare Modernization Act or MMA, or try changing SS
They live a perverted lifestyle, they love Socialism, and blame us for everything. And now we’re supposed to give them empathy and make them want to like us? The truth is, a lot of them are lazy, a lot of them do have atheist socialist values, they go on world travel and waste all their money. They support the green agenda, global warming and globalism. They get worthless education degrees by choice in mass communication or XYZ studies. That’s not our fault. Now they’re hitting the age where they want a house. They supported BLM and lead the marches. They tore down the statues. They despise old America and do not want it back.
Maybe they would get a little sympathy if they change their voting patterns. The males have started, but the females are hard left.
In thrall to their elderly...
From 2008...
Think Wexit.
It’s coming to the UK
There is not now and never has been any hope for France
That does not mean the wealth is fairly distributed, BUT those two variables are what drive true wealth.
What politician in the West in the last 45 years has mentioned those?
All the emphasis is on wealth distribution, not generation.
That's because socialists who have been in charge in the West for many decades now (they have defined society) are all about how to slice that cake up to divide it up more socially equitable, but they never care about making/baking more cakes.
The result of their leadership is equitable poverty - where we are all equally poor.
If you want to see that in action, travel to Cuba (an extreme case), Europe (a moderate case). The more socialist, the more wealth generation / production is suppressed. Why?
In order to create “equity” like Obama strives for, you have to destroy the incentive system both corporate and for labor. Any system that incentivizes productivity, innovation, prudent risk taking, and holds people accountable creates INequity among people and in business, it allows people as well as corporations to fail.
California "public servant" pensions ---- All pensions 21,228,344 records found – Page 1 of 424,567 -- California
Governments -- plural -- from the federal down to tiny cities have become swamped with "pensions" for those who supposedly were to "serve" a people, and managed stealthily and over time SERVE THEMSELVES.
Actually, that's the myth being sold. In reality all the idiot Leftists talking about "equity" cannot conceive of THEIR "share" being diminished to some "equity" like everyone gets the same pay. Were that to actually happen in some Leftist government, the "public servants" would all run screaming from the room.
Orwell was prescient and correct.
Way too many folks send their young ones off to study ancient roman gods or social this and social that. And now they have that big fat degree but can't find two nickels to rub together.
What's really needed is far more Apprenticeship programs across all the trades.
We need unions out of governments—totally.
And yes, they probably need their pensions cut down to size—in contrast to the diminishing crumbs of social security.
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