LOCAL SUPERMARKET
Posted on 12/23/2010 2:45:34 AM PST by abb
PRICHARD, Ala. — This struggling small city on the outskirts of Mobile was warned for years that if it did nothing, its pension fund would run out of money by 2009. Right on schedule, its fund ran dry.
Then Prichard did something that pension experts say they have never seen before: it stopped sending monthly pension checks to its 150 retired workers, breaking a state law requiring it to pay its promised retirement benefits in full.
Since then, Nettie Banks, 68, a retired Prichard police and fire dispatcher, has filed for bankruptcy. Alfred Arnold, a 66-year-old retired fire captain, has gone back to work as a shopping mall security guard to try to keep his house. Eddie Ragland, 59, a retired police captain, accepted help from colleagues, bake sales and collection jars after he was shot by a robber, leaving him badly wounded and unable to get to his new job as a police officer at the regional airport.
Far worse was the retired fire marshal who died in June. Like many of the others, he was too young to collect Social Security. “When they found him, he had no electricity and no running water in his house,” said David Anders, 58, a retired district fire chief. “He was a proud enough man that he wouldn’t accept help.”
The situation in Prichard is extremely unusual — the city has sought bankruptcy protection twice — but it proves that the unthinkable can, in fact, sometimes happen. And it stands as a warning to cities like Philadelphia and states like Illinois, whose pension funds are under great strain: if nothing changes, the money eventually does run out, and when that happens, misery and turmoil follow.
snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
re: When the host dies, the parasite loses its food source
A very salient observation. And one I fear is lost on most of those who are sailing along now in their government jobs looking forward to retirement, not giving a single thought to what happens when the money is simply not there.
I honestly feel we are closer to the absolute collapse of the system, and the chaos that will ensue, than any of us realize. Our system is under attack on many sides, and just like a balloon every little bit of pressure counts. If you’ve pushed a balloon far enough then it takes a relatively small amount of additional pressure to break it. That’s our system. Some relatively small occurrence could easily bring about a collapse. Not predicting, just observing.
As I’ve said before, if the government wasn’t constantly blowing money on things that aren’t its responsiblity, it would have money for things that are.
Funny how people want big brother to take care of every minor problem of theirs, then act surprised when it suddenly runs out of money.
Read PLUNDER by Steven Greenhut. You’ll be angry, mad as hell, and sick and disgusted by the second chapter.
Estimated median household income in 2009: $20,798 (it was $19,544 in 2000)
Population in July 2009: 27,578. Black alone - 24,095 (84.2%)
White alone - 4,038 (14.1%)
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Prichard-Alabama.html#ixzz18wgznLyl
Maybe they screwed themselves by not saving enough. I’m not counting on any social security or medicare to help me out when I get old.
They should have started their own savings plan. Is this too complicated? Seems like previous generations saved their mony, why not this retiring generation?
They really just made a huge gamble that their pension lottery winnings would keep coming.
Always pick the cash option up front for lotto tickets. Get the money while you can.
Yep. Just ask United Airline employees what happened to THEIR pensions when they went bankrupt! Oh all these “promises”. Ask people coming to retirement age about all those promises of social security money that was TAKEN FROM THEM for their entire working lives.
That’s the definition of a Ponzi scheme. Keep adding new ‘investors’ to pay out the returns to the previous ‘investors’.
LOCAL SUPERMARKET
“Some very bad consequences of employees trustingtheir government to keep their word.”
I am not going to let you get away with this outrageous remark. Public employee groups and labor cartels have lobbied vociferously for large amounts of surplus deferred compensation. Public employee pension agencies have used crooked accounting to hide the risk and disguise the compensation levels. Public employee retirement compensation is a vicious principal agent problem in which the agent (politicians, pension agencies, and administrators) act in direct opposition to the interests of the principal (taxpayers). The taxpayer is bearing the risk without any benefit. I have no sympathy for any public employee not receiving his pension.
How many people do you know who have a government guaranteed pension that requires forty years of work?
The teachers I know get to retire at 55. They didn't start teaching at 15. Some with cops.
I know some government workers who are in their 70’s. They just can’t let it go. They love it and find it a sense of duty. They are saving us big bucks. Of course no one will believe it, but if you retire the couple in their 70’s and put them on pension....you still have to hire two new folks to do their job. I think more people are working longer than 55 years old. People in government enjoy it and find a lot of happiness in sacrificing their entire lives to the United States of America. Understand that most here don’t understand that because sacrifice is not necessarily a good word.
“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.” - Lady Margret Thatcher
A lot of those bennies came about through corrupt negotiations with corrupt politicians.
We in the private sector have to face the awful fact that all our savings may be worth less than we hoped.
If a family can walk away from their mortgage, why not the gov?
Anyway, Jackson only did what would of happened anyways. It's the boom that causes the bust, not the bust that busts the boom.
“Pardon me if I have no place in my heart for these people who have been feeding at the public trough.”
No, I won’t pardon you. “These people” were promised a pension for the necessary work they did and should receive it.
You can sneer all you wish at some old lady trying to parse out a few dollars to live on but we all know who would cry the loudest if their trash wasn’t picked up or their 911 call ignored.
I doubt it was necessary. And politicians break their promises all the time. In this case that you are referring to some of the promising politicians are probably dead. Maybe you don't care but it has been a long held axiom of American government that future legislatures cannot be bound by the acts of those that came before. (You might notice that appropriations are voted upon by every legislature.)
Then you obviously have no sympathy for anyone else who receives a pension.I suppose that includes the military.
Why not just say you feel no one should get a pension.
Public employees are no different from any other employees who bargain for pay raises and pensions.
Feeling bitter because someone else has a pension and you have none is not a good argument. You picked the wrong career.
I am not going to let you get away with this outrageous remark
Pray tell me what is outrageous about this remark? Isn’t that exactly what happened? The employees retired with a promise from this town of certain benefits. They trusted their town ,took it at it’s word.In fact more than it’s word, it;s written contract. The town defaulted.
Perhaps if they had known what was coming they could have made other plans. Instead of paying into their retirement, they could have used their money in some other way. Now they lost their investment and get nothing. Yes Public employees do pay into retirement., It isn’t free.
Perhaps had they known what was coming they would have stayed at work,
No. They trusted their town and they got the shaft.
I am certain if you have no sympathy for Public employees getting the shaft then you are violently opposed to the extension of unemployment benefits, Social Security, and Welfare.
ML/NJ
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.