Europe.

Oh, by the way -- France is in chaos. The workers there refuse to be dehumanized the way we have been in the USA. Scandinavian countries are still the best place for women -- so, when they try to refute things we, here in America, say -- they are coming from a very different place.

Austerity is an attempt to cow the workers. We've had neo-cons, neo-libs -- is "neo-feudalism" far away? That seems to be what our "overlords", "the masters of the universe", want.

They are as stupid as most medieval lords were. Serfdom is not an appealing future.

As I've said before -- thank whoever I'm old -- I'd hate to be 25 looking at the world today. The only saving grace for today's 25 year olds is that they do not have a clue about what The USA was, what it could have been, and how our leaders have destroyed our civil rights.

We, here, are now constantly reduced to voting for the LEAST objectionable candidate -- and, hoo-boy, some are REALLY objectionable.




Strikes Loom as France's Pension Showdown Heats Up
Time.com

By BRUCE CRUMLEY / PARIS Bruce Crumley / Paris – Tue Oct 12, 1:55 pm ET

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made clear his intention to push through pension reform into law. In France, that can only mean one thing: strikes. On Tuesday, the country hunkered down for its fourth day of work stoppages this month. But in contrast to the earlier protests, the Oct. 12 walkouts led by transport workers may be renewed on a daily basis by increasingly defiant union members now enjoying a surge of public support. That, observers say, raises the threat of the kind of rolling strikes that brought the nation to a stand-still for nearly three weeks in 1995 - a conflict that was also sparked by contested pension reform.

Nearly 250 marches were scheduled nationwide Tuesday, with unions hoping to mobilize the one to three million people estimated to have turned out for each of the previous days of demonstration. By noon the strike activity had provoked cancellation of 30%-50% of flights at Paris-area airports, mostly limited to domestic routes - a level of disruption also experienced by train travelers. Commuters to Paris encountered large traffic jams as trains serving suburban lines were considerably affected. Though movement on the Metro was fairly fluid early on, that was expected to change later in the day as employees left work to join afternoon marches. Worse still, by mid-morning Tuesday, members of unions representing Metro workers had already voted to renew their action for Wednesday - a prolongation national rail workers were expected to replicate amid rising defiance to pension reform that Sarkozy and his conservative government say is not open for negotiation. (See pictures of Sarkozy celebrating Bastille Day.)

"We're one of the few countries that can have four protests drawing two or three million people to the streets without the government saying anything or holding any talks," said FranÇois ChÉrÈque, general secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor - the biggest and most moderate of France's main unions - on France 2 television Tuesday morning. "There's a growing feeling that the government can only understand if there's complete blockage."

That's a scary thought, and may explain the opposition of ChÉrÈque and other union officials to the decision by members to reserve daily renewal of striking as an option - something that, over time, could create more generalized unrest and instability across the economically fragile country. (Read: "Massive Strikes Close France")

While there's little debate that France's swamped pay-as-you-go pension system needs to be reformed, proposals on how to do that clash dramatically. The government plan will extend the minimum retirement age from the current 60 to 62 years, and up the age to qualify for a full pension from 65 to 67. It also raises the number of years people must work paying into the scheme from 40.5 to 41.5 years. That, the government says, is necessary to finance a pension system that already runs a $13 billion annual deficit and will face a projected $123 billion shortfall by 2050 as a glut of baby boomers retire.

Opponents call the measures unfair. Increasing the minimum age to receive a full pension, they note, penalizes people who began working earlier in life than others, women who've taken time off to raise children, and employees forced into part-time jobs. Detractors also ridicule the idea of forcing people to work later in life when companies now routinely lay aging workers off before others, and are averse to hiring anyone over 50. Those critiques now find receptive ears. Though polls initially found a majority of people resigned to the government reform when it was announced in June, opinion has reversed itself since then, with 60% calling package of measures "unjust". Similarly, on Monday a CSA survey for the daily Le Parisien found 69% supporting the strike and demonstration movement, and 61% hoping it would endure and harden. (See pictures of the Champs-Elys[a {e}]es going green.)

If it does, the government may have itself to blame. In addition to refusing to negotiate significant changes to the reform, Sarkozy moved to pressure conservatives in the upper house of parliament over the weekend to speed up final passage of its main measures before Tuesday's protests. But rather than that leaving marchers appearing quixotic in opposition to a deal already done, the move instead infuriated union leaders and opposition politicians, and appears to have stoked support for them among the public. Just as bad for Sarkozy, Tuesday's pension protests were joined for the first time this year by students, whose mobilization has repeatedly led to policy surrender by governments over the years. That set up a showdown likely to define the future of reform in France - and Sarkozy's position at the head of it.