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I wish the British were more like the French

richgilb said:
Yes....we went out for a lunch last week and he ordered a 30 euro plate of raw tuna, cut into a massive flower. He likes to celebrate a morning's work!

My Uk partner and I used to go for a pizza if we hit target. Which was about twice a year.
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Finding a life partner is hard enough, to find a business partner even more difficult. I have not been in a work partnership since the early 80's, that sort of worked, but I would not do it again unless with my partner or maybe one of the kids, but needs must.

Bloss
 
richgilb said:
So say you were earning 40,000 euros gross annual salary in your last 6 months as a civil servant...at 60, you would get 30,000 euros per year for the rest of your life?
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Yes. Provided you had 37.5 years service.
 
chartz said:
Yes. Provided you had 37.5 years service.
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As a Brit (with our shit pensions), I can see Macron' point a bit. It's the main reason I can't afford to employ anybody. I would have to pay an extra 40% of the salary for the social security fund, which I understand is how the pensions get paid?. So a 20k warehousing salary would actually cost my company 28k. And then the employee has to pay a decent amount too. In summary nearly half of that 28k is straight to the government

It's a big ask. And that is whý I have a partner instead and my missus working for nothing. It's too expensive to even put her through the books on minimum wage under the income tax threshold as a part-timer.

In summary, my company (along with a few others I know round here) is putting much less into the social security fund than it would if the employment costs were more affordable.
 
webster said:
How else can they fund public sector pensions?
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I don't know...and what about all the private ones too!?

I think the concern is that the pensions are probably unaffordably high now, as people live much longer. And so the country is likely to crack just on this point. As it is showing signs of doing this week. I totally get the worker view. It's not fair that you start paying in in your 20s, planning to retire at a certain age with a certain amount put aside. And then the government keeps robbing it off you.
 
blossomchris said:
Finding a life partner is hard enough, to find a business partner even more difficult. I have not been in a work partnership since the early 80's, that sort of worked, but I would not do it again unless with my partner or maybe one of the kids, but needs must.

Bloss
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Right. In England I would have employed someone. Here it's just not viable for me.
 
richgilb said:
I think the concern is that the pensions are probably unaffordably high now
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If only it were that simple - they've been unaffordably high for many years but as is often the case the french are behind the curve with regard to sorting the problem out.
 
ks.234 said:
The French government proposes to make many French people, and their children, a lot poorer. The French people organise and protest.

The British government proposes to make many British people and their children poorer. The British people shrug, moan, and still vote for the government that made them poorer.

The French seem to have an independence of mind. The British seem be stuck in the mindset of the conquered.
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Have you seen the books on offer in the average French local shop? They aren't there for show. The French are generally better educated and especially concerning politics. By comparison. much of the UK electorate are neanderthals. How else do you explain some bloke in Grimsby.. after being nearly starved to death by the Tories for 10 years. saying that he thinks 'Boris has some good ideas'.

Gimme strength.
 
Bob McC said:
Really?
France has the highest rates of cirrhosis of the liver in Europe.
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When were those stats ? I believe rates in France and Italy have been falling, unlike the UK. A reliable chart of World/Europe rates would be interesting: a lot of confusion on the web.
 
Mullardman said:
Have you seen the books on offer in the average French local shop? They aren't there for show. The French are generally better educated and especially concerning politics. By comparison. much of the UK electorate are neanderthals. How else do you explain some bloke in Grimsby.. after being nearly starved to death by the Tories for 10 years. saying that he thinks 'Boris has some good ideas'.

Gimme strength.
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Being seen as an intellectual in France is OK... Political/philosophical/literary discussion is normal.
 
Bob McC said:
France has the highest rates of cirrhosis of the liver in Europe.
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How offal !

From what I read about the pensions history in France, somebody has to do something, surely. We also have a pensions problem here, but there were only grumbles by comparison when the government of the time started tinkering with (or updating?) the pension ages. Is there that much of a fundamental difference in acceptance levels between us and the French?
 
Bob McC said:
Really?
France has the highest rates of cirrhosis of the liver in Europe.
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Best I can find are from WHO 2014 deaths per 100,000:
1. Romania 36
2. Hungary 26
3. Lithuania 24
4. Slovakia 23
5. Croatia/Finland 18
7. Bulgaria/Estonia 17

Germany 12, UK 10 and France down at 8 per 100,000. Italy at 6. Only Netherlands (they have something else !) at 4 and Norway (nobody can afford to drink anything) at 3 are appreciably lower.
I'll keep drinking the wine !
 
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