Britain's on strike. This is the paragraph that caught my attention:

The unions are protesting at plans to scrap a so-called rule of 85 which allows council staff to retire at 60 if their age and length of service adds up to 85 years.

First of all, you need to realize that it's not just union members or government employees in Europe who receive pensions. Corporate drones do as well. They by and large think white collar Americans are greedy cusses when it comes to demanding decent salaries, but when you explain to them that there is no such thing as a 30% pension after you retire, and you have to live on your savings and 401k plan, then then "get" it, and say "Oh!" Oh, indeed. No social security check is going to even cover property taxes around here, let alone living expenses. There is no pension check. A few dinosaur companies such as Ford and United Airlines had them, but they are what crippled the companies.

Second, if such a rule existed stateside, I figuratively could have retired five years ago, and literally could within another decade, well short of the traditional retirement age of 65, which only became a "tradition" perhaps starting in the 1950s. That age has now been extended to 70 or 75, depending upon the employer. No employer can force you work until that age, but
unless you're independently wealthy, you've got to take the money while you can get it. It won't roll in automatically, otherwise, while you sit on your butt, sip tea, and weed the garden.

Don't even get me started on the French, who think it's their birthright to hold down a job from which it's nearly impossible to get fired. Where I'm from, jaywalking is our only birthright. We are entitled to nothing else. And jaywalking can, in theory, get you arrested.

Okay, my rant is finished.