[Vince Ferrer]

No the taxpayers are the ones being raped to pay for it.

True but there is only so much you can tax the people before they get up and leave. Then you default on your obligations, and part of those obligatin are to the employees.

A busdriver in Detroit accepts a job offer with promises for a pension at the end of working 30 years. He trusts the city because that generation trusts the government as being rock solid. He works for the city for 30 years. During that time, people start leaving Detroit, fed up with the policies and economic collapse, but he stays on, because of that promise. He has put in some years now, and can't cash in on that promise and walk away to a growing city. He is now near retirement, and Detroit goes bankrupt. The current offer from the city manager is to pay pensions 18 cents on the dollar. He can't sue to get his 30 years back so he can get a pension from another city. He believed a lie and at the end of his career, when he can't do anything to fix it, he has been raped by the city, through no fault of his own.

[Jim from C-Town]

The bus driver should have saved more of his $70,000 + a year salary. The pension system and salary system are both bloated.

Why bus companies and commuter rail lines can’t be privatized is beyond me. There is no reason why they are so heavily government subsidized. If necessary, they will be self financing and profitable.

It is because of the government subsidies that a bus driver can often make six figures with the full benefit and pension program to match that of a senior level executive.

[AlmaKing]

He made his choice to invest in the government. Why should we have any sympathy for that?

I made my choice in my industry. I know the risks. And I have no pension.

[VRWCarea51]

I will use generalities here. A large part of the problem was that cronies were placed in positions that were in charge of those retirement funds. They played with other people’s lives and invested in junk bonds and high risk stocks. The cronies left town with their pot of gold before things went south.
( John Corzine types)

[Hardastarboard]

Good summation of the issue.

[Rome2000]

He drove a BUS for 30 years, he’s supposed to live like Rockefeller?

The whole concept of taxpayer funded pensions needs to be sh!tcanned

Let them get social security like everyone else

[Lurker]

” He believed a lie and at the end of his career, when he can’t do anything to fix it, he has been raped by the city, through no fault of his own.”

“You can’t cheat an honest man.” W.C. Fields.

[1010RD]

but he stays on, because nobody would give him the pay and bennies he's getting ever outside of government. They've made their money, sorry about the pensions.