la Réforme des retraites

I am not a socialist. I'm an American quasi-capitalist, so to me this whole thing is fascinating. I haven't met a French person yet who is happy with the national reform on retirement that is taking place. There have been manifestations since we got here and they are only getting worse. Yesterday, the high schools even got involved.
Here's how I understand it: in France, everyone who works has an eventual "right" to retire. Currently, the minimum retirement age is sixty (with the minimum pension and benefits attached); the maximum age is sixty-five. In order to qualify for retirement you simply need to accumulate the desired amount of years of work, anywhere. You don't need to land a good job with a good company, and then be loyal to that company for thirty years. You just need to accumulate years of work.
The French government is pushing the minimum and maximum age of retirement back two years.
France is currently hindered, as is the rest of the western world, by the financial crisis. There is fear that in twenty years there will not be enough money to pay for retirement completely: in part, because people are living longer (putting more financial strain on the government's social pocketbook).
The current system of retirements is unsustainable: something has to change.
This problem is not a fictional ploy of Sarkozy's government. France is in a financial crisis that was imposed when deregulations in the capitalist system precipitated a financial meltdown. To me, the reform is not so much the problem as was the way it was delivered. People don't seem to understand it except as in terms that equal to them having to work longer. The explanation? The government messed up on it since the beginning, choosing to speed through the process of reform in order to impose its views. It didn't understand that in order to truly change, it needed to thoroughly explain the situation without precipitation.It is completely the opposite which occurred. A reform is legitimate only if it is understood. The fact that it is carried by such an unpopular president does not help anything, either.