Should the old give way to the young?

Yesterday on TV, there was a debat about whether the old should give way to the young. Give way in terms of job, since they are so many young people couldn't find a job. That means the old should go to retire earlier so that they are more positions available for the young.

In France, there are 13.4 millions retirees as of 1 July 2004. The people who are 65 or more than 65 years old represent 16.4% of the French population as of 1 January 2004. It is estimated to reach about 25% in 2030. In 2001, the retirees who are more than 60 receive on enverage 1126 euros (before tax) per person per month. (Figures from http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/dossiers/retraites/questions.shtml).

As the old generations are growing, they will be more people withdraw their pension fund, whose sources of incomes come from people who are currently working - meaning the younger generations. But if the person who withdraw keep growing but the person who are supposed to enter the workforce don't have chance to enter, that means it will be a huge gap between people who withdraw the money and people who contribute to the fund.

Anyway, this is not a new issue in western Europe. What is interesting is that in that program, they did a joke to some old people. Two guys wore in police uniform, inform the old people passing by that they have no right to wonder around that round, because it's reserved for the young. These two guys told the old people that they scared the young, that they should be using the area. It's interesting and sad at the same time to see how the old people respond. One said that"I'm old, but are you going to kill me?"

I think it's unfair to ask the old to give way to the young, because they have worked their butt up in the pass year, contributing to the social security and being a good citizen. To have more job to the young, the government simply has to simplifier the process of creating an enterprise, encouring more people to be their own boss, give tax break to enterprise that hire people who work for the first time in their life. In the current law, creating an enterprise is so painful, with a lot of tax to take care of. It's not like in UK, with 1 pound you can register your company.