Discussing French protests

 So, Macron decided to unilaterally try to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and people are LOSING THEIR CRAP over it. And I'm going to be honest, I kinda love this. Now, I don't advocate for setting crap on fire or anything, but the "general strike" culture of the french is based. They just freaking shut down their country whenever the government screws with them. And now there are mountains of garbage flooding the streets that don't get picked up. And this is why they have progressive labor laws, and we don't. Ya know, in 1968, they literally brought their country to a standstill and threw DeGaulle out of office. They don't take crap off of people, and as a result, they're very left wing economically, almost to a fault. 

I admit, they overdo it. They had Holland in before Macron, and he was a socialist, and he implemented a 75% tax on the rich. Now, keep in mind, that's just their federal tax rate. Including local taxation, their tax rate was probably close to 100%. And it caused the rich to leave the country. Apparently they can't tax more than 50% federally over there, as that brings the total tax rate around to 70%, which is the infamous laffer curve I talked about. Huge reason I myself don't like tax rates above 70% much.That's why I said that their tax rate was probably close to 100% with the local rates involved. With a 19% additional tax rate from other forms of taxation, they would be paying 94% effective tax if the tax rate was 75% by that logic. So yikes, sometimes the left does go too far.

But...other than that, i LOVE french work culture. I really wish that the US was more like france. They have progressive labor laws. They have generous safety nets, I mean, retirement age at 62, a lot of people are pointing out that's abnormal these days. Most countries are 65-67 these days. And they're saying well they should be more like them. As a meme I saw today said, it's amazing how people can't stop seeing the world as 8 billion people working their lives away to make line on graph go up. I know that people love talking about ERMAHGERD WE'RE HEADING TOWARD A RETIREMENT CRISIS! And saying we need 3 workers for every retiree and with longer life expectancies the numbers don't work, but I think that's BS. In America, the social security problem could be resolved simply by raising the payroll tax cap. In France, as part of this package, Macron was trying to make it where you'd need to work for at least 43 years to retire. That's just...sick to me. You are forced to work for so many years, just to be able to retire. I say we should make a society where can retire as they want. Because people shouldn't be wage slaves. They shouldnt be forced to work to make line go up in the first place.

And before people ask "well someone has to work", and "how ya gonna pay for it?" I have to ask...are you really reading this blog? I've kinda gone into this before multiple times, anyway, to quickly outline my solutions, it's this.

First of all, I have a UBI plan. $1250 a month to every adult over age 18, combined with a 20% flat tax. So that's the baseline. From there, we just reduce social security's benefits by 20% to compensate for this, or alternatively tax it for 20%, either way it doesn't matter, and we do that as a short term solution for social security and current beneficiaries. Now everyone gets a UBI of $1250 a month, but then everyone who retires at the right age can collect on top of that. The benefit structure would be reduced, sure, but combining UBI and that, people would be better off. Long term, I wouldn't be opposed to some sort of social security reform. I wouldn't be supportive of getting rid of the idea entirely, but changing the benefit structure further and having some sort of labor based contribution system on top of UBI? Sure. 

Like, here's the thing with retirement ages. As Macron's plan laid out, they believe that people need to suffer and work for so many years to collect. I think if we move toward a society with everyone getting a UBI, and we try to move to a world with less reliance on paid work, that we could move away from that. Sure, we can keep some sort of social security or pension system, but I'd wanna make it more flexible, where you'd just get back some level of earnings on top of your UBI in line with your contributions over the years. Maybe set the age at, idk, 65, keep it around there, and however much you paid in, the more you get. The longer you work, the more you get. We kinda have this currently too, but yeah, I could see changing the structure further to account for the fact that everyone has a UBI. 

Heck if people wanna collect early, say they're disabled, I'd support that too. If you wanna pull the plug at 50 or 55, why not in some cases? Again, you wouldnt get as much money if you do, but that's your choice. 

Like...I've kinda talked before about wanting to get rid of the traditional job, and to maybe transition to a more gig like economy. I mean, with UBI and universal healthcare, that's valid too. It would be a perfect way to allow people to work as much or as little as they want, rather than establishing a life script for people like 'you have to work so many hours a week for so many years of your life." Ya know? I dont like the idea of the government mandating people work for so much time as part of the social contract or they dont get benefits. I understand these ideas were once super progressive as the gilded age that came before had people working for a lot longer for a lot less, but at this point, I feel like to some extent these systems keep us from working even less. We keep creating this treadmill of job creation because we don't wanna change the system. I think we should.

And before people once again try to remind me we need work for society to function. Yes, we need SOME work for society to function. We don't need every able bodied person working. We've become 6x more productive per person since we established social security and the 40 hour work week in the 1930s, and 3x since 1950, and I expect our productivity to quadruple over the next century if we stay on our current trajectory. Automation and outsourcing are wreaking havoc on the american economy. I just read this new chat GPT thing everyone is obsessed with (I havent tried it due to the cell phone requirement) could greatly automate even more work. WE DON'T NEED TO KEEP WORKING WHILE WE USED TO! And while I admit some mild reductions in productivity might occur if we implement UBI (I estimate 13% based on previous studies), if implemented over time, it these effects could be easily absorbed and offset by further growth. The fact is, if we're gonna keep growing, and most growth per capita arguably comes from greater utilization of technology, then there's no reason why we can't transition to an economy where we work less. Heck, if we've done this since World War II, we could probably be working 20-50% less than we currently are. That could take the form of reduced work weeks, or reducing our working time and retiring sooner, or having a UBI and allowing people to choose when they work and don't work. The fact is, we can wean ourselves off of work over time IF WE ONLY CHOOSE TO. Sure, it might mean less growth and productivity, but even if we lost 1/3 of our GDP overnight like we did during COVID, we could still live like a reasonable first world country. That's how prosperous we are. Heck, we could live LIKE FRANCE DOES! 

Seriously, look it up. France is at $43k GDP per capita. Yet they're a first world country, they have better labor laws than we do, they retire earlier than they do. They live, in some ways, better than we do. Sure, we have higher GDP, but higher GDP doesn't guarantee happiness. Yes, higher living standards are correlated with happiness, but not necessarily if with it comes crushing incentives to work that make us miserable. I mean, maybe there's more to life than the constant grind of work, and the constant accumulation of things. I'm not saying that stuff doesn't enhance life, but as Kyle Kulinski said in his take on this, in France, they work to live, here, we live to work. 

So, idk, not only am I for the workers here, I think france needs to go further itself. Establish UBI, free people from wage slavery there too. Again, as much as I admire French work culture, it's in a relative sense. They still have a system where people are forced to work. They just have better laws about how they treat people in the process. And they're rebelling against the the erosion of those laws. Which, hey, is a lot more respectable than screaming about crossdressers reading stories to children of some orange demagogue getting arrested tomorrow (no, I haven't been ignoring it, I'm just waiting to see what happens). Like, this is an actual substantive issue that impacts peoples' lives, and the French don't take crap from their elites. We seem to ignore substantive issues, while protesting over bullcrap stuff no one should care about. Just an observation between the US and France. 

But yeah. Again, not only pro worker here, but think they need to go further. But compared to what we have? Love france's culture on this stuff relative to ours.