Collective bargaining error in your favor. Continue to claim unearned taxpayer dollars.
Posted on 02/22/2011 11:56:41 AM PST by Nachum
Shortly after the Green Bay Packers turned the nation’s attention to the Midwestern state, Wisconsin once again has garnered the nation’s attention. At stake this time is not a trophy, but a prized retirement package promised to public employees. Throngs of protesters have taken to Madison, Wisconsin to either show their support or disdain for Governor Scott Walker’s plan to require public employees to pay 5.8 percent (the national average is roughly 12 percent) of their salary as a contribution to their pension.
The looming issue of funding public pensions is not unique to Wisconsin. Governor Walker’s stand, however, has focused the nation’s attention largely because he is the first Republican leader to propose legitimate legislation designed to address the problem head on. The debate in Wisconsin is a precursor to one that will be seen New York, California, Illinois, and dozens of other states. Unfunded liabilities stemming from decades of generous retirement packages for public employees has finally reached the breaking point. Without reform, state fiscal collapse is inevitable. Often lost in the debate is a simple explanation of what exactly the problem is with the system today. Fortunately, a pertinent example helps shed light on the financial precariousness of the situation in Wisconsin, and more importantly, the nation at large.
(Excerpt) Read more at biggovernment.com ...
An unfair wage for almost no work
I think it was CNN claiming that it’s all about corporate greed not thinking (which they seldom do) that it’s the taxpayers who are paying those salaries.
bump!
it’s the state version of the sosh security Ponzi scheme...
the country’s collective gut instinct is correct- gubmint unions are a scam and a conflict of interest to the taxpaying public’s financial well-being.
look around: those “laboratories of democracy” just tells us what does NOT work and why:
Detroit and Decay [city may abandon half its schools to pay union benefits]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2657788/posts
Why Teacher Pensions Don’t Work
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2655928/posts
Better Than Bankruptcy: Trim Fat State Pensions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2674906/posts
Kentucky Senate Votes To End Guaranteed Pensions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2673540/posts
Flashback- City taxpayers foot 90% of municipal pensions
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2677070/posts
Read pensiontsunami.com regularly. It’s a compilation of news reports, mostly local or regional, about pension problems and abuses everywhere. You’ll see what most in public sector are angry about.
http://www.pensiontsunami.com/public.php
My mother’s story is similar.
She worked for 5 years for a public school in Ohio before she retired and moved to NC around 1950.
For the past several decades (she is currently 88) she has received a monthly retirement check (currently $350 per month) that has been greater than any monthly check she received while she worked as a teacher.
She has also received generous medical coverage (has paid for hundreds of thousands of dollars in operations over the years).
She could never figure out how the State of Ohio could afford this.
Perhaps the real reason why public-sector pension costs have not been tackled is that the full bill has never been revealed to taxpayers.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13988606
These union thugs really are stupid, so this is addressed to them (in case any are lurking):
You are parasites. You leverage political power and corruption for sweet-heart deals far better than we in the private sector can get. But you’re also stupid parasites, because smart parasites know that if they kill the host, THEY DIE, TOO. That’s what you’re looking at here. Walker’s proposal isn’t even enough to keep the host (private sector) alive, and look how you’re squeeling. The host is being given last rights, and all you can do is through a hissy fit. Well, SCREW YOU! Because you know what? If the host kills the parasites, it doesn’t die, IT GETS HEALTHIER!
I caught a clip on FNC this AM of a woman who was the head of the public employee association ( or something like that) of Ohio. She was saying something like, “You could lay off all the public employees in Ohio and it would only make up 1/4 of the deficit. “ If that’s not what she said, I’m sure she meant to convey that impression, as she finished by saying “ You can’t balance the budget on the backs of the state employees.” However, if there are 300,000 + public employees in Ohio, a bigger state than WI, and if their average income is 50,000, which I think is a conservative estimate, then laying them all off saves $15 b.; if that’s only 25% of the Ohio deficit, then Move Out of Ohio! Yesterday!!! However, I suspect it was deceptive, fuzzy math she was employing.( I wanted to check it, but it only played once, and I can’t find it on Youtube or Foxnews, or I’d post it).
Interesting, my mother-in-law worked at a public college in CA for 5 years (to the day). She receives a check for $500 a month, for life (she’s 58, retired for 2 years now). She put in a little over $10K personally, the university (state) matched the $10K with tax dollars, so her all in money was $20K. In 40 months, she’ll be even, maybe 44 if you allow some return on investment from 2004 to now.
Either way, the taxpayer gets hosed, every single time.
This jig needs to be up, for every government worker and have government be reduced 50% minimum.
Same thing in Arkansas. Work in Oklahoma, retire, go to Arkansas, work 5 years and retire again. It is a beautiful thing.
I watch people I graduated high school with who are already retired and seem to do well enough, teachers. Now I wouldn’t want their jobs mind you but I don’t like paying for their retirement either.
Collective bargaining error in your favor. Continue to claim unearned taxpayer dollars.
My dad was an officer in the Teamster’s Union in the 70s. He was asked to audit the books of a dairy in Hartford, CT. The union employees wanted a raise and the dairy owners told them that they weren’t making enough money and that raising salaries would bankrupt them. My dad did the audit and found out the Dairy owners were telling the truth. He gave his report at the union meeting and the members elected to strike anyway. The Dairy went out of business after about a week and all the employees were out of work.
“...I watch people I graduated high school with who are already retired and seem to do well enough, teachers. Now I wouldn’t want their jobs mind you but I don’t like paying for their retirement either.....”
I would not choose to be a teracher either, but that does not necessitate the teachers ripping off the taxpayers. For decades they have lamented their lot in life, as if they are the only one who ever have to work at night doing studying or prep for the next day’s work.
It’s clear the teachers have no idea how hard a self-employed person works - about 60 hours a week or more! Rare weekends off, and small vacations and holidays. But you do not hear the main stream media lament over their lot. Only the teachers get any sympathy.
When I was at university, I began in a pre-med program (on the way to getting a degree in Medical Technology). About 6 gals were in the program at that time. Only one of us made it through the first year. All the others changed over to elementary education majors! The science courses were just too tough for them, so they changed to an easier course.
I would choose to be a teacher, except they artificially limit the opportunities to be a teacher, by requiring college degrees that have little bearing on the ability to teach.
At least in my state there aren’t teacher’s unions and union dues. I wouldn’t want to be forced to pay part of my salary to a union so they could elect people I hate.
Being a teacher is a great job, you do the exact same thing year after year, you get paid more every year, you get excellent pension and benefits, you get the summers off, and you get to work with kids.
Self-employed, I wish I could do it on 60 hours a week! I wish I remembered the last time I had a honest-to-goodness for real, shut-down everything, have somebody take care of it vacation. I think my son was 12, he is nearly 30 now.
I usually manage to take off Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
I wish lots of things but maybe, if I am lucky, I’ll get carried from my desk to the graveyard. Otherwise, if I can’t work it could be a bad outcome because I may run out of money before I run out of life.
Social Security has similar extremely low work requirements to 'vest' or qualify for a check for life.
My husband is an accountant for subsidized housing. He says the welfare people find jobs flipping burgers, and only work long enough to get the Earned Income Credit. Each year the government (taxpayers) pay them over a thousand dollars for their LACK of work. They quickly cash the check, and go back to claiming poverty so their welfare checks keep coming.
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