Several weeks ago the Malaysian civil servant union demanded to extent the retirement age from 55 to 58. It got approved and people are happy.
Today, the French government announced the possibility to require a French to work 41 years instead of 40 years in order to enjoy a full retirement pension. Result: 700 000 people on the street against this reform.
Of course both countries have a completely different retirement system. In Malaysia each worker has their own retirement fund that they channel a part of their salary into. As for the French, the young pay into the system and the system then pay out to those who are retired. The biggest difference is, a Malaysian can easily spend all of the pension fund before he leaves the world, while a French will keep receiving his pension check until his last breath. Therefore the extreme reaction to the retirement reform. A Malaysian would like to work longer so that he can keep pumping money into his personal retirement fund. For the French, there is simply no interest to work longer. Can't blame them really.
There are also mixed reactions from the Germans when the government here proposed the idea of prolonging the retirement age from 65 to 67.
ReplyDeleteMost people here prefer retiring early too.
Not enough money for retirement.. maybe one of the reason to extend the age..
ReplyDelete