Surviving the Strikes

As I'm sure you all have heard, the strikes have been going on throughout France for over two weeks now. I've come to find it is something I will never understand. How can raising the retirement age a mere two years from 60 to 62 cause such unrest throughout the entire country for so long? I understand being upset, but honestly, I'll probably be working 40+ hours until I'm 80, while they work 35 with over a month of vacation time. Maybe that's why as an outsider, I don't understand. But what does setting fire to cars, schools and train tracks do to fix the problem? Sounds like they are just causing more problems for people who had nothing to do with the reform, I highly doubt President Sarkozy and other high powered government officials are taking the Metro to work each day. The thing that I find the oddest is that so many of those striking are high school students, saying that if the older generation stays in the workforce for an extra 2 years that they won't get the jobs they deserve. All seems like an excuse to miss school to me! I've lucked out that I have avoided any direct effects from the strike, besides a closed monument or museum here or there, but the strike has seriously disrupted all of France, I didn't think I was going to make it out of the country due to not enough fuel and many flights being canceled. Luckily, my flight was not one of them, and I made it safe and sound to Spain last night! Let's just hope that when I return in a week all this unrest is finally over...