My mother is a VEA member and she bitches nonstop how much she’s underpaid...the union keeps telling Virginia teachers they are one of the lowest-paid teachers in the nation.
She is conservative, to a point, but is fierce about her pension, which she “earned” in her estimation. I asked her why the private sector should kick in over half of her retirement, and she responded, because we EARNED per our CONTRACT and THEY DON’T PAY US ENOUGH TO MAKE US SAVE FOR OUR PENSIONS...we are on the front lines of the single-family raised “youths” that manage to come to class, before dropping out.
I asked her, what will teachers do if there isn’t enough revenue to pay their lifetime pensions and benefits, she said that they would strike, like Europe, as she thinks the Euro-Socialist model is better than the US. Teachers are “valued” over there, not in VA.
Her final reply was what was the last resort if the US could not meet its pension/debt requirements, her response...”Sell the F*king Golden Gate Bridge to the G*D*mn Chinese or Russians, for all I care...I want my money and we (teachers) EARNED IT....”
There is no arguing with the brainwashed, even your own mother. We are taxed to death to pay government salaries, benefits and pensions...it is about to end, and the correction will be ugly.
I used to be friends with our retired chief of police. He’s evidently a RAT who became a RINO through marriage. What tore it with me was when we were attending a Republican candidate’s night, he went off on how the “women and children would go before the pension that he had earned.” Since public pensions are public, I looked his up. He’s been “retired” for about ten years and his pension today is approximately three times what he was making at the point where he retired, Oh, and he won’t leave the state because if he does, his gold-plated state-provided medical care goes away.