Live Small: Are pensions and lifestyles under attack?

Headline - Unions call for fresh strikes over pensions

“France’s main unions called on Thursday for two further days of strike action against a planned overhaul of the pension system that has triggered the biggest and most sustained anti-austerity protests in Europe.” (Oct.22, London Free Press)

I don’t mind an austere lifestyle, though surely, I’m not even close. After all, I live in Canada, I eat three squares a day, own a car and a nice wee house and a closet full of clothes (I’ve bought no new clothes for almost two years but still I’m doing great), have a guaranteed pension - and RRSPs as a backup plan.

In other words, I live like a king here in Wortley Village, London, Ontario.


["Is our economic model a bit wobbly? You bet."]

But in Europe, as austerity is planned or imposed, it is not looked at as a positive step forward.

“The French president (i.e., Sarkozy) wants the bill to raise the minimum retirement age by two years to 62, and the maximum age for a full pension to 67 from 65, passed by the end of the month.”

Pensions don’t look like they’re under attack, but they are on the French government’s radar, so to speak.

So they should be, but not alone. Just about every other line in that nation’s budget needs to be examined.

Same is true in Canada, US, Britain, Japan, Italy, etc. Name a country. It's likely up to its eyebrows in debt.

Debt is killing us. And most private and public pension plans are in serious deficit.

And I quote:

“The number of defined benefit pension schemes that are in deficit has doubled over the past five years to stand at 92% of the total, making retirement prospects bleak unless changes are made, an accountancy body said on Friday.

Pension funding deficits have risen from $160 billion in 2003 to an estimated $350 billion in 2008 and continue to grow, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada said.” - April 30, 2010, London Free Press]

So, adjustments to king-like lifestyles, made fat on the back of cheap oil, will have to be made - unfortunately downward in many cases.

Pensions. Salaries. Jobs. The size of cars and homes. Groceries. RRSPs. Fuel. Clothes. Cable TV.

Everything will be under the microscope soon.

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I think it’s easier on the brain pan if we voluntarily make reductions now than wait until the rug is pulled out.

Get small before you get low.

Related reading - The Long Emergency; see Read This, right hand margin.

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