Elon Musk does not come out of a controversy when he is in another. The American magnate defends President Emmanuel Macron in the midst of a wave of riots over pension reform in France, while up to a million French citizens and unions demonstrate in the streets. One of the most controversial measures has to do with increasing the retirement age of his compatriots. He will go from 62 years to 64 years.
A decision that has generated great discomfort in the population, who are not determined to worsen their conditions when it comes to retirement. Testa’s CEO applauds this initiative through a message on his Twitter account. The truth is that everything indicates that the pension reform will go ahead, which will be accompanied by an extension of the contribution period to receive the full pension, which will thus go from the now 42 years to 43. “Macron has taken a difficult decision, but it is the right one. Retirement was set at 62 years when life expectancy was much shorter. It is impossible for a small number of workers to support a large number of retirees,” Musk has sentenced through his own social network.
Macron is doing the difficult thing, but the right thing. The retirement age of 62 was set when life expectancy was much shorter. It is impossible for a small number of workers to support a large number of retirees.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 20, 2023
The pension reform in France: in the eye of the hurricane
Spain and France are closer than they seem, not only as border neighbors, but also in the reform of the pension model. According to the latest data published by Eurostat, both economies stand out for their low productivity and low employment rates, especially among the young population, as well as the excess weight of small and medium-sized companies in the productive fabric, if compared with the one of economies of the countries of the north of Europe.
In this case, France is the third country that allocates the most public money to the sustainability of pensions. To be more exact, up to 14.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (CPI). They are only ahead of Greece and Italy. In the case of Spain, it stands at 11.6%. However, although our country is not coded among the top three positions in the ranking, the truth is that it is also above the OECD average, that is, 8.5%.
