If a system treats retirement as a sacred cow even when the meaning of work is being redefined at lightning speed by AI, if it’s acceptable to have productivity grind to a halt in August because the wisdom of asking employees to all take four to five weeks off in the same month while we live in a 24/7 world is never questioned, and if that same system lets young people study by rote in leaky classrooms while offering its over-60s free social dinners, let us not be surprised if the pressure valve is showing signs of fatigue.
All are part of the government, but few stood up to bring leaky school roofs and missing teachers to national consciousness.
Centrally, the government is financially challenged but refuses to acknowledge that having a huge deficit, an ageing population and a low retirement age are perhaps connected.
Modest attempts to increase the retirement age also provoked violent protests.
Thus, this sclerotic system presses on until the next crisis.
Financial tools for individual retirement remain complex and restricted.