The New York Times reported on plans in France to raise the retirement age from its current 60 years. The article included a quote from France's recovery director, Patrick Devedjian: "We start working later and later, and we stop, or at least we used to stop until now, earlier and earlier, and we live longer and longer,” Mr. Devedjian said. “Such an economic model is impossible.”
In fact, this model is not impossible. If workers opt to take the benefits of higher productive growth in the form of leisure time, a continual increase in the length of retirement and shortening of normal work lives is entirely workable. Since there is a strong correlation between income and greenhouse gas emissions, this approach is extremely desirable from an environmental perspective.
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