It depends on the pension plan you pay into. The state pension age is ridiculously high in the USA and the UK compared with European countries like France.
Some careers can afford to retire at 50
This comment is gonna offend some people. However, everybody who has an Economics or Political Science degree will tell you that what I'm about to say is true.
The countries where you can retire at 50 are the ones with the PIGS economies... Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain certainly, but Norway, Holland, and Belgium are also net-loss economies for the EEU. France's economy underperforms in almost every category and contributes less than 75% of what it should. They're only taken seriously in the EEU because of their population numbers. Many of these economies [Portugal, Italy, Greece] refuse to even work towards a more equitable sharing of the EEU load and just expect 'somebody else' to pay for their social programs.
Bluntly put, there is ONE economy actually holding up its end of the EEU agreement. That economy is Germany. And Germans are getting sick to death of people in the 'black hole economies' retiring at 50 and laying around on a Mediterranean beach on Germany's pfennig.
As an American, I had no say in Brexit. But I did some reading on it because there were people I know who were directly effected [a couple Brits and a guy I know in France]. Once you get down past the propaganda, hyperbole and outright lies in the Brexit debate, there were some legitimate complaints by the British and Germans over supporting the 'socialist paradise' economies like it was Welfare program. That doesn't excuse the propaganda, hyperbole and lies, but it wasn't all just made up either. In any event, as of now the UK took the only other economy that realistically functioned out of the EEU, so it's all on the Germans' shoulders now.
Furthermore, the majority of NATO doesn't field militaries for their own defense. They spend just [barely] enough to make NATO happy and then rent the USN and USAF to come save their asses. The only two NATO allies that actually have a skin in the game are Germany and the UK. To be fair, I have not watched the Swedish and Finnish militaries that much because they were neutrals for most of my life, but they simply don't have the populations or the GDP to field much. Same with Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, although these three are taking the Russian threat FAR more seriously for obvious reasons. The Poles are spending as much as their economy will support for the same reasons.
But the pure, hard, cold fact is that a great many citizens of Europe live comfortable lives with an extensive social safety net because it is simply easier politically to rent the services of German bankers and US service personnel to work the overtime they themselves should be working. You cannot depend on your allies to guarantee your trade, diplomacy, and borders and then bitch about how they do it. Especially with Czar Vlad Put-Put on their doorstep and China ramping up.
