Posted on 12/27/2016 4:08:04 PM PST by ARGLOCKGUY
For millions of public sector workers in the U.S., state-run pension funds are the only chance left for a comfortable retirement. In the hopes of providing a stable future for their families, an entire generation was duped into putting decades of their earnings into these supposedly ‘risk-free’ investments. Unfortunately, those who have entrusted the government to manage their life savings may end up destitute as a result.
Budgetary shortfalls that have plagued Detroit for years are now spreading to other municipalities. Since 2008, six local governments have been forced to renegotiate their debts in bankruptcy court, with many others on the same trajectory. The scale of the problem has been repeatedly understated by the media, but across the nation, a somber reality is beginning to set in.
States with large populations, like California, often find themselves in the spotlight when it comes to deficits, but there are several others that are in even worse shape. Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut are among those facing the biggest hurdles to meet their obligations to retirees. Instead of maintaining a surplus, politicians have continuously prioritized spending today on things like sports stadiums, for example, to ensure re-election. Policymakers on both sides of the aisle have echoed solutions that involve either massive cuts to benefits or shifting the financial burden onto the taxpayer. The price to prop up these insolvent funds will come in the form of higher property taxes, income taxes, and other stealth forms of subsidization.
The ongoing exodus of people from the Northeast to states that offer better opportunities and a lower cost of living is putting even more stress on the already fragile system. Pension payouts depend on the contributions of current workers, and as the labor force dwindles, so does the money available.
“Every one of them thinks he or she “sacrificed for the public good” while they were raking in above-market compensation, layoff-proof, unfireable, for twenty or thirty years.”
Exactly. Given the state of the country, actual punishment should be doled out to these “public servants”.
When it comes to pensions: the government can giveth and the government can take away. They can just pass a law and give them 30 cents on the dollar promised. The smart and easy solution would be to cap the monthly pension payments such that it remains within budget. All the politically connected would be screaming about their high 6 figure pensions going away, but too bad.
Frickin-A. The millions and millions of .gov employees didn’t feel so much as a speed-bump the last 8 years. Mow ‘em down.
“Frickin-A. The millions and millions of .gov employees didn’t feel so much as a speed-bump the last 8 years. Mow ‘em down.”
EXACTLY!
They’re shaking their heads wondering why everyone is so mad:
They’ve gotten raises, colas, exempted from Obamacaretax and early six-figure retirements.
Meanwhile everyone else lost their job, their house and had to go on foodstamps.
Time to even the score.
Richmond CA is also a seriously afflicted city with very high crime welfare murder and poverty rates. You’d think they’d be paying about one- quarter of those wages
I love our firemen and police, but unions have taken advantage of the system with willing politician and now it is going to come back and haunt every major city and County in America.
Time for the free market to even the score, and ridding the .gov of employees who haven’t yet latched on to retirement benefits. They need to feel the laws of the jungle, for once, and I hope the departments in DC have 40% of their operational AND payroll budgets taken away.
About time, way past time, they discover “the real Obama economy”.
Hope they like what they built.
Just try doing what the Democrat politicians do.
Open a savings account at a bank.
Put $1,000 into the savings account.
Take out the $1,000 and buy hookers and booze.
Come back a month later and take out the $1,000 again to pay your mortgage.
What?
There’s no money in the account?
Go hold up your neighbors.
A headline that stands out for its level of stupidity, even in 2016.
Not all of them by any means, but enough to make for some interesting conversations. There is no one quite so blind, deaf, and dumb as a GS-15 married to another GS-15, both getting DC locality pay, with a household income somewhere north of $200,000, who thinks she is being screwed by an unfair compensation system. Not a hypothetical case ....
What happens, of course, is that these folks buy comfortable upper-middle class homes in comfortable upper-middle class suburbs. (Since DC is a very expensive market, these houses are not grand; you could get a comparable house at a third of the price in Omaha.) They are segregated by mortgage payment and completely surrounded by people at about their level, so they think they are average. And since their pay is capped by a GS system that is highly compressed -- paying very well at lower and mid-level worker bee grades, but underpaying for many senior jobs -- they resent their lack of upward mobility (though not enough to leave the security of federal service). Lifestyles expand to consume the available paycheck. After enough years of being plateaued as a 13, 14, or 15, but realizing there is nowhere to go, they begin to resent the people in the slightly larger McMansions they pass on their commutes. It's irrational, but understandable.
Yes, the fedgov does underpay many top executives. I'm pretty sure you will not find many people in the private sector running $5 billion operations for $125,000 a year. It's common in government. And while there is some deadwood, it is largely sidelined and quarantined at mid-levels. People who rise to branch chief and director positions have been competitively selected and are generally pretty good at what they do. There is indeed some movement out to the private sector at this level, but the unparalleled security and generous retirement keep the majority on board. And in fairness. most of the federales at senior levels don't complain about their situation. The important thing is not really their level of pay; it's whether they perceive themselves as having the option to leave for more pay. Most of them are smart enough to own their choice, and if they choose security over higher pay, they do it with their eyes open and without too much complaint.
How much is going to illegals from the national treasure chest thanks to Obama and Liberal RATs in Congress and gutless RINOs??
Translation: the money was spent on more current wages for unionized public employees. The biggest cost item, if you trace it all out, is almost always labor cost. And most government labor is unionized. So most of the funds not set aside for pensions went to the same folks complaining about pension funding. Knowingly and intentionally.
As long as taxpayers have 2 pennies to rub together public employee pensions will never be unfunded. They’ll steal one penny and charge you the other penny for the service.
The only solution as I see it is to raise taxes so we can pay the big pensions for our betters..... while we get none.
I own some stock and have been lucky I recently picked NVIDIA. It has almost doubled since I bought it in August. This stock and maybe AMD is what will provide my “pension” along with social security.
I hate seeing the huge salaries of the gov’t workers like the chart of #5 and being told these people are sacrificing so they should be able to retire at 50 or 55. They just go out and get another job with the state and double dip!
The HUGE taxes we pay mostly go for the pensions and not to repair the roads and utilities etc.
Quibble but budget shortfalls do not "spread". It's not communicable. They start with in the city or state being fiscally irresponsible
N.H has no state income tax-—chart doesn’t show that.
Here in Connecticut, the Police and Fire Retirement System is the average of your highest/last three years salary.
The CT State Police [CSP] are notorious for padding their retirements by working extraordinary amounts of overtime, their final three years. Cha-ching.
And not one member of the legislature wants to end this practice. {{crickets}}
Title II SS funds were looted systematically for illegals and any other whim libbs and RINOs had..
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