PatriotsReign

I'm sure he's actually a very intelligent man...but this makes me wonder if he has any common-sense. Decide for yourself!

France eyes layoffs clampdown as unemployment climbs

"President Francois Hollande rode to power in a presidential runoff last month on a promise to tackle soaring unemployment, which has reached the highest level since 1999.

And this is how he wants to accomplish his objective.

"France's new Socialist government is planning to ramp up the cost of laying off workers for companies in the coming months, its labour minister said on Thursday after data showed the jobless rate hit the highest level this century at 10 percent."

France eyes layoffs clampdown as unemployment climbs | World | Reuters

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"No one walking this earth knows what is truly righteous"

Patters

France has for years had one of the most diverse and successful economies in the world. Even before the current Socialist government it had laws making companies apply if this want to close down a factory, and provide workers with at least one year's notice.

PR, you have basically advocated the sort of economic policy that dominates conservative "thinking," despite there being no evidence that those policies work. When Reagan tried conservative approaches, he had to quickly switch course. When Coolidge and Hoover tried conservative economics it culminated in the Great Depression. The reason the US is still struggling is because of retrenchment of government jobs at the state level. The reason the British economy has returned to recession is because of retrenchment.

I think the right wing is terrified that the French president's policies will work. In the 1990s, the righties devoted enormous energy to the prediction that the Swedish economy would collapse. Instead, the Swedish economy has done quite well, and has even done one of the better jobs weathering the recession.

The reality is that conservative economic policies don't work, and the evidence so far is that left wing (socialist/capitalist) policies do work. Well, let's see how the French experiment does compared with the British experiment, where the policies advocated by the likes of you are causing the economy to shrink so far.

Wolfpack

Sure, in:

Hebeill

The man just lowered the retirement age to 60, can't see how this would help the situation.

Real World

Oh my. What if a company simply can't afford the keep employees due to lack of revenue. Do they just go bankrupt and then everyone simply loses their jobs?

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"The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him."
Leo Tolstoy, 1897

Patters

The main advantage is that it will open up jobs for young people, perhaps at a fairly high rate, since young people earn less.

Hebeill

This the type of answer i would expect the other mod to post if the situation were reversed. Congradulations you are now on par with him.

Patters

What's that supposed to mean? It sounds like you're assuming there is no logic behind what is being proposed? It's one thing to disagree with an argument, it's another thing to believe an argument doesn't exist. Doesn't it seem obvious to you that if older people retire, job openings will open up? Depending how France does it, it might not even cost the taxpayer more. In the US, if you start collecting SS at 62, you get less than you would get if you waited until you were 65.

shmessy

But you are collecting 3 more years. And those are the 3 years most likely to be collected.

Look, lifespans are increasing. Retirement ages should also.

A far better solution would be to RAISE the retirement ages and SIMULTANEOUSLY lower the employer's pension tax burden, thus encouraging more hiring (and, in the US, eliminate the Social Security Wage Base benefit for those who make over ~118K).

A 50 year retirement sounds like a great thing - - but there is economic danger in that. How many people you know have pensions and investments that can last them 50 years? Lowering retirement ages for pensions is economic suicide in today's world. The longer someone is on a fixed income with no ability to compensate for future changes in lifestyle, health costs, etc., the less they can react to economic changes in their lives.

What you are prescribing is national and individual economic disaster.

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Patters

I think it depends to some degree on immigration. The French, like the Americans, are fairly liberal when it comes to immigration, so if there's adequate economic growth and a continued influx of younger workers, then early retirement can work. Of course, at some point it will lead to a crisis, but frankly I don't think any economic model or approach is fixed in stone. Someday, France might have to go in a different direction, but given its current problems it makes sense to do what can be done to create jobs for younger people, and encourage older, more highly paid people to retire. I see the variables in an economy as variables that have to change over time given different economic realities. There may come a time to raise the retirement age, but now is not the time given the large number of unemployed youth.