OVER a million French protesters took to the streets this week to contest the government's plans to raise the legal minimum retirement age from 60 to 62. The French spend longer in retirement than almost anybody else. French women enjoy 28 years as pensioners and French men 24 years, six years more than the OECD average. Americans, by contrast, have among the shortest spells in retirement: just 18 years for men, and 21 years for women. France's government does not, though, spend as much money on pensions as Italy's, which devotes 14.1% of GDP to retirement spending, next to 12.5% in France and just 6% in America.

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