What's the right age to retire?
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
The French are not happy with their government's plan to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62.
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More than a million people in 220 French cities took to the streets yesterday protesting - with strikers disrupting trains, planes, hospitals and mail delivery.
Yet French President Nicolas Sarkozy is vowing to push ahead with the overhaul of the country's pension system. You see, France and many other European countries have come to the realization that if they don't do something about their troubled fiscal situations now - they risk winding up in the same boat as Greece.
But don't tell that to the French union workers, who are a bit dramatic about the idea of working until 62.
One sign in Paris showed a raised middle finger with the following message: "Greetings from people who will die on the job."
The French government is telling them things could be worse. Other European countries are thinking about raising the retirement age to 67 or 68. And here in the U.S. the retirement age is gradually going up to 67.
Meanwhile as the French complain about working until 62, a growing number of Americans are working into their 90s and even 100s.
Experts on aging say a daily job can help alleviate boredom, improve physical health and provide older people with a schedule. Some of them are working to supplement their retirement savings or to give extra money for their families
AARP says by 2012 almost one-fifth of the workforce will be older than 55, and baby boomers will likely keep working beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.
Here’s my question to you: What’s the right age to retire?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
Mistake to raise taxes on so-called wealthy?
(PHOTO CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES)
FROM CNN's Jack Cafferty:
President Obama is making it perfectly clear. He wants the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy to expire. By his definition, "wealthy" translates as couples making more than $250,000 a year or individuals making more than $200,000.
Speaking in Cleveland earlier today - the president said the country can not afford the $700 billion price tag associated with these tax cuts over the next 10 years. He says tax rates for the wealthy should go back to what they were under President Clinton.
However, Mr. Obama does want the tax cuts to be made permanent for middle class Americans, or those making less than $250,000.
Of course, given the shaky economy and the president's sagging poll numbers - it's not clear he will get what he wants here.
Critics suggest that letting the Bush tax cuts expire, even only for the wealthy, could be "a blow to a very fragile economy." Some Republicans want a permanent extension of all the Bush tax cuts. And Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner was out today ahead of the president's speech calling for a two-year freeze of all tax rates.
So what do most Americans think? A recent CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll shows 51 percent of those surveyed say the tax cuts should be continued only for families making less than $250,000. 31 percent say they should be continued for all Americans, and 18 percent say the tax cuts should expire for all Americans.
Here’s my question to you: In our weakened economy, is it a mistake to raise taxes on the so-called wealthy?
Interested to know which ones made it on air?
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