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I have acquaintances in the gov't sector who are gaming the system by collaborating with their fellow workers to put in lots of overtime in the last three years before retirement in order to inflate the base rate which their pension is based upon.
While private sector employees will have to work to 65,66, or 67 before they retire, many of my acquaintances will be retiring in their 50's with pensions and health care benefits which are nothing short of outrageous.
As the article states, the costs of these benefits are going up exponentially and swamping the ability of gov't to pay them. Something has to give, and when the few people who actually pay taxes to pay these benefits realize how we have been screwed by the new 'royalty', it will not be pretty.
In California unfunded pension and health care liabilities for state workers top $100 billion, and the annual pension contribution has shot up from $320 million to $7.3 billion in less than a decade.
THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MOMENT! The State itself said this on Nov 30th.........The budget problem consists of a $6.3 billion projected deficit for 2009–10 and a $14.4 billion gap between projected revenues and spending in 2010–11.....
If you examine those numbers you see the INCREASE in pension costs if responsible for 2/3rd of the budget deicit for the next two years....
Truly shocking stats, but illustrative of how quickly things have spun out of control/.
http://www.amazon.com/Plunder-Employee-Treasuries-Controlling-Bankrupting/dp/0984275207
Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (Paperback)
~ Steven Greenhut (Author)
Also, if you understand the premise (collapse the system from within, Cloward-Pivens, “In Praise of Barbarians”, “Unjust Desserts”, etc) the economy HAS to be collapsed for Obama to implement his new ‘Foundation” for the economy.
We are in dangerous times. Some people don’t want to admit it.
Remember, it never is...pretty...
http://biggovernment.com/2009/10/03/the-federalist-papers-federalist-no-1/
These chicks make some good points.
“the obvious interest of a certain class of men in every State to resist all changes which may hazard a diminution of the power, emolument, and consequence of the offices they hold under the State establishments”
bump
The first thing our new Congress should do is to correct this. The private sector is much more valuable than the government and unions who lie and use their members.
It’s important to differentiate between state/local employees and federal employees.
Benefits for federal employees and retirees are funded out of the Treasury. If more money is needed to fund those obligations, more money can be printed.
States and localities can’t print money, so obligations for their employees have to come out of state/local taxes.
Big difference!
The idiots in Oregon voted this week to raise their personal income tax rate to one of the highest in the nation, and raise taxes on businesses, so as to give public employees a nice big raise. Of course, public employees already make 1/3 more than private sector workers and have better benefits - but hey, I’m sure they really deserved it.
We need to keep the pressure on all our politicos and have them cancel or not renew the union contracts , contract most all Gov. services to private co.
No gubMint employees = No overpaid power hungry gubMint workers, No golden retirement pensions ...........
Explain too me how exempting all gubMint employees from the law, that all the other citizens are subjected too, is not a violation of the 14th Amend. , The Equal Protection Under the Law Clause ?
If that does not work we need too put a referendum on the ballot too implement these polices
No matter how well intentioned, Government agency’s/programs turn into a cesspool of graft & corruption
"On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants."
Can these “promises” be broken on the Federal or state levels or is the taxpayer stuck?
Public servants...have become the perpetual mandarin class...which ran China India Russai etc. into the ground.
First step in reform: bust up their unions
Wasn’t it JFK that allowed them to become unionized?
FWIW my wife (a school principal) is 12 year younger than I, and we will retire in the same year....assuming that a) I live that long and b) if there’s anything left of my private pensions and 401k’s in 2027. Our salaries are within a few dollars of each other....for now She will pass me this year because her raises are 4-5%. Hell, last year the company didn’t give out raises and this year I’m going to assume more of the same. She will retire on a pretty fat pension at 55.
bttt
Legislatures are sovereign. They can zero any of this out in five seconds, all it takes is a vote, all that takes is representatives willing to do so.