Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: jrp
Its also infuriating that California state and local employees do not pay SS...

Dude, why are you thinking backward on this? The answer is to restore to everyone the same rights that the California public employees have retained. The only reason you pay into Social Security is that everyone looks at public employee pensions as something that should be taken away, instead of something that should be emulated.

The San Diego situation is not representative of how public pensions generally work. The vast majority of public employees pay the same amount toward their pension that would have gone into SS. In return they receive a sustainable pension that provides a comfortable retirement.

The "overgenerous" benefits that everyone complains about could easily be available for every legal resident in the US, if everyone wasn't so busy being outraged at the wrong people.

65 posted on 12/20/2007 12:54:10 PM PST by Go_Raiders ("Being able to catch well in a crowd just means you can't get open, that's all." -- James Lofton)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies ]


To: Go_Raiders

You are partly misinformed. While I agree with your first point about demanding an option to leave social security, your point about sustainable pensions is not accuarate. It is difficult to make a general statement about state and local government pensions because of the wide variance. There are a number of prominent states (California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and California) with extremely generous pension plans. These plans are just disguised forms of deferred compensation. The amount of deferred compensation could not be replicated with a 401K. The public employee is receiving very high returns with no risk. The 401K employee would need to bear lots of risk to replicate the returns in these defined benefit plans.

Here is my study about the deferred compensation in Colorado pensions.

Abbreviated version: http://www.i2i.org/articles/IB-2007-D.pdf
Full version: http://ssrn.com/abstract=985621


88 posted on 12/20/2007 8:53:57 PM PST by businessprofessor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies ]

To: Go_Raiders
The vast majority of public employees pay the same amount toward their pension that would have gone into SS.

Too much reason for a topic intended to produce hysteria. Cut it out.

168 posted on 02/02/2008 8:03:47 AM PST by Stentor
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson