Detroit retiree on pension cuts: 'I can't live on what I get now'

cnnmoney ^ | 2/21/2014 | Melanie Hicken

[Signalman]

Thousands of retired and current Detroit workers face pension cuts as deep as 34%, and some say they aren't sure how they'll make ends meet if the plan announced Friday is approved.

"They have worried me from the day they started this mess. You sit on pins and needles all the time," said 69-year-old Donald Smith, who retired in 2005 after decades of work as a civilian detention officer and other general city jobs.

For Smith, the cuts could mean a loss of around $300 a month from his $889 in monthly pension benefits, even as he already struggles to pay for rent, groceries and medical bills. Between his pension and Social Security, Smith currently lives on less than $23,000 a year.

"If they go and cut that, how am I going to live off of that?" he said, "I can't live on what I get now."

At the same time, retirees could face increased medical bills due to proposed deep cuts to their retiree healthcare benefits.

[rcofdayton]

I say, sell of the art. While they might get $800 for art under the proposed rescue, I would like them to sell it as a visible symbol of what happens when a city lives profligately.

[William Tell]

From the linked article: "A summary of the plan also notes that a proposed infusion of state funds would go toward ensuring retirees don't fall below the federal poverty line, but further details were not provided. "

Hey... A "needs-based" cut in retirement pensions. What's not to like? It's a socialist's dream come true.

Why would I be disgruntled? Just because I worked hard for thirty years and saved as much as I could and now would have to give up pension money to those who didn't save a dime? What's not to like?

If we want more people to work hard and save for their future we just have to see to it that we punish such people for doing so? Isn't that right? Isn't that the "fair" thing to do? Won't it result in a wonderful world where every little child gets a pony? I can hardly wait.

[SunkenCiv]

Obama’s tax hikes couldn’t have helped, either.

Thanks Signalman.

[SamAdams76]

That's the kind of bitter post I've come to expect whenever I talk about my career and how much I like my job. I suppose you assume I'm some sort of Louis Winthorpe III, a product of the best schooling and all the advantages of good breeding.

Well you would be wrong. I came from the working classes, served a hitch in the Marine Corps and spent a few years slinging baggage at airports, bussing tables and washing dishes. It wasn't until I was in my 30s that I learned how to properly wear a suit and know which fork to use for the salad.

I'm tired of the whole lunchpail working class hero routine. There is no reason for somebody to be banging asphalt shingles on a roof for 40 years. It's honorable work when you are a young stud and just looking to have a few cold beers at the pub at the end of the day. But if you are 60 years old and still banging shingles or slinging hash - you went wrong somewhere.

[Nifster]

yeah... but he is getting almost 900 a month from social security. That’s a little less than midrange of what is paid out based on work experience.

He says he is getting just shy of 2k a month ($23k per year) from both payouts. That should be enough for this man to live on. It is Detroit after all. He either has a house that can be sold or it is paid off. He can move to a smaller living space. He could get part time work (though that is harder and harder to do).

[William Tell]

Starstruck said: "Pension being reduced? Do you normally plan for something like that?"

I certainly did. We consistently lived off about half of my income and saved the other half.

I've owned four vehicles over forty years, three bought new and one bought two-years-old. I never took expensive vacations.

When I was in my early twenties I scrimped to make up a down payment on a tract home. I did this by working twenty hours of overtime a week for two years. This was while my peers were buying expensive sports cars and partying all the time.

My wife and I believe that the money spent on the typical wedding is criminally insane. Ours cost about fifty bucks.

I spent the first five years of married life working full time and taking university classes.

Could I tolerate a market crash right now? Yes. It would mean that I would have to give up high-speed internet, satellite TV, and a bunch of other non-essentials. There would be other adjustments as well. Yes, it was part of a plan to be retired early, to live comfortably, and to adjust without regrets to life's surprises.

One thing I definitely didn't do was trust the government to take care of me. I resent having made all the sacrifices I did while "watching the grasshoppers play" and now they are whining that things are not working out. If I saw their pain coming, why didn't they?

And to really top of the discussion, I should point out that their pain hasn't even begun. It's going to get much, much worse. I can hardly wait for when the younger generation realizes the trick that our generation has played on them. They are going to be PISSED.

Who leaves their own grandchildren twenty trillion dollars in debt? Who leaves them with almost two-hundred trillion dollars in unfunded entitlement liabilities? Who leaves them with an aging infrastructure of crumbling highways and bridges they won't be able to maintain?

I hope they enjoy their abandoned wind-mills and high speed train-to-nowhere here in Kalifornia. They can use the train cars as make-shift shelters when the rains return.

[Starstruck]

Starstruck said: "Pension being reduced? Do you normally plan for something like that?" I certainly did. We consistently lived off about half of my income and saved the other half.

Good for you. I'm guessing based on his pension and Social Security, this guy didn't make enough to live on half his income. I'm guessing he did well to live from paycheck to paycheck. When you are not the sharpest knife in the drawer, sometimes just not being on the public dole is a good thing. That being said he earned his pension and that is being taken away from him. To think that times could never be hard enough for everything to be taken away from you except cable and a few other things.......well I hope you are right....cause sometimes when it comes to compassion what goes around comes around.

[OldPossum]

I had no intention of supporting the “noble workman” in my post. I was simply pointing out that you in your elevated status (which, by the way, you never seem to miss an opportunity to remind us of) simply swept away the idea that not everyone a) has a desk job and b) is enamored with their work.

Many people work at what they can do and look forward to the day when they can cease and get some rest.

You’ll understand why I’m not impressed by your doing manual labor in your 30s. Hell, that’s neither here nor there. It’s the manual labor when someone is in their 50s and 60s that’s at issue. People do what their educational background, training, intelligence and other factors allow for, and if they are restricted thereby by this personal background to doing manual work, then that’s what they do. And I have no problem with that. In fact, it’s commendable. It has nothing to do with what you describe as the “lunchpail working class hero,” just commendable that they’re willing to work at what they can do.

Your lack of empathy is showing, along with your arrogance.

[William Tell]

Starstruck said: "That being said he earned his pension and that is being taken away from him. "

He was promised his pension. It wasn't earned by anyone. If it had been, he would perhaps still have it.

There are certainly people with troubles not of their own making. That could even include me if some really bad thing happens. Even my level of preparation and sacrifice is no guarantee that all will not be lost.

My preps for a complete breakdown are insufficient for more than a year. Could that happen? Yes. And one of the reasons is that so many won't hold people responsible for their own success.

I'm prepared to take care of myself, but I will be relatively helpless during an onslaught of hungry, disappointed, and desparate city dwellers who have mortgaged their future and the future of our grandchildren. They have consistently supported profligate policies involving broken windmills, trains to nowhere, and saving snaildarters in preference to letting farmers raise food.

My wife's parents lived through the depression. They understood that you have to live frugally and work hard. They lived into their nineties and took care of themselves.

[SamAdams76]

Still, I am seeing more than a little "class envy" in your postings.

It is a liberal trait for one to criticize somebody for "rising above one's station".

The elite liberals would have the rest of us be their serfs.

Well, I shall have none of that.

[OldPossum]

There is no need for me to have class envy. I am retired with an income of over $90,000 a year, two houses, a decent-sized investment portfolio, all of which I would imagine, compares available with most Americans. Not with you, of course.

And I was not criticizing anyone for rising above one’s station in life. I came from a lower-middle income class, served in the military, paid for my college education with part-time work, and eventually made something of myself. So, don’t give me that “elite liberals” baloney; it doesn’t fit.

But keep on with your bragging whenever the occasion permits. That does seem to fit your personality.

[SamAdams76]

So we end up being alike after all. Maybe you should not be so quick to lash out at others who also want to achieve as you have.

[GOPJ]

Perhaps Donald should have planned better for his old age. Maybe even saved some of his income over the years. It’s not like getting old is an unexpected event.

Donald believed the democrats who ran his city... then he believed the democrats who ran his union. Now he's paying for it...

[Dusty Road]

I’m not going to bash him but he did make the decision to retire at that salary and that age. He reitred too soon and on too little money from the start.