Posted on 04/17/2014 1:21:39 PM PDT by Kaslin
As a supporter of genuine capitalism, which means the right of contract and the absence of coercion, I don’t think there should be any policies that help or hinder unions.
The government should simply be a neutral referee that enforces contracts and upholds the rule of law.
Similarly, I also don’t have any philosophical objection to employers and employees agreeing to “defined benefit” pension plans, which basically promise workers a pre-determined amount of money after they retire based on factors such as average pay and years in the workforce.
After all, my money and property aren’t involved, so it’s not my business.
That being said, these so-called “DB plans” have a bad habit of going bankrupt. And that means the rest of us may get stuck with the bill if there’s a taxpayer bailout.
I discuss these issues in an interview with Fox Business News.
Dan Mitchell Discussing Possible Taxpayer-Financed Pension Bailout
My main point is that there’s a deep hole in many of these plans, so someone is going to feel some pain.
I don’t want taxpayers to be hit, and I also don’t think well-managed pensions should be gouged with ever-rising premiums simply because other plans are faltering.
But I bet both will suffer, as will workers and retirees in the under-funded plans.
As part of the interview, I also warned that other “DB plans” are ticking time bombs. More specifically, most pensions for state and local bureaucrats involve (overly generous) pre-determined commitments and very rarely have governments set aside the amount of money needed to fund those promises.
And the biggest DB time bomb is Social Security, which has an unfunded cash-flow liability of more than $30 trillion. That’s a lot of money even by Washington standards.
But I closed with a bit of good news.
As workers and employers have learned that DB plans tend to be unstable and unsustainable, there has been a marked shift toward “defined contribution” plans such as IRAs and 401(k)s.
These plans are the private property of workers, so there’s no risk that the money will be stolen or squandered.
But even this good news comes with a caveat. We closed the interview by fretting about the possibility that governments will steal (or at least over-tax) these private pension assets at some point in the future.
That’s already happened in Argentina and Poland, so I’m not just being a paranoid libertarian.
Is the Pope Catholic??
The three cornerstones of Democrat electoral strategy are Cal, Ill, and NY. 107 votes. They also have some of the largest public pension deficits.
You can bet your @ss their pension systems will be bailed out.
The sign should more accurately read:
No cuts to our free stuff! We demand free stuff at the expense of the American taxpayer. We demand that the citizenry pay us more than they are, themselves, allowed to keep. We demand that the citizenry sacrifice their own incomes to line our pockets. We demand that the American taxpayer fund our comfortable retirements in perpetuity.
Didn’t it already happen with GM?
Reason #486 why,IMO,secession is the only answer.
Obama has a nice scam going. He’s convinced the media that he’s giving $100 million to the unions but the truth is a little more complicated that that.
The reality is that Michigan is going to spend some $350 million on mostly infrastructure in Detroit and Obama is trying to force Rick Snyder to give $100 million of that to the unions.
There is an article in Detroit Free Press that Obama is proposing to help out their city worker pensions. Can’t post from that site.
You know, with technology, secession no longer has to be a geographic situation. Think virtual secession. Opt out options….etc…...
First of all, it is HIS business, because the unions help to elect the public officials who then turn around and give them these excessively generous benefits, without bothering to figure out how to pay for them..That's the vicious cycle we have to break.
Second, whatever "NUMBER" we're told is the amount these plans are underfunded, take that number and multiply it by Joe Biden's IQ, and you'll be closer to reality.
What he’s trying to do is force Rick Snyder to bail out the union with infrastructure funds and Obama will take the credit for it or blame Snyder for not bailing them out.
Its classic Obama.
That was pocket change compared to what will be needed in California, Illinois, and New York.
Q. “Will taxpayers be forced to bail out union pensions?”
A. Yes.
In this case, can we please have the thousand words !!!
Ya. Just a taste.
And while the Union members enjoy a wonderful retirement at my expense, my retirement is dwindling away because of the bad economy and inflation. And I am smart enough to know that I can’t count on SS.
There is certainly no justice.
Others got long terms also..this is gonna be HARD time for them..several won't make it...
Where the money come from? Obama’s stash.
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