I’ll take a shot at this one. Disclaimer: My late father was retired government and my mother still lives off the pension. My sister, brother, sister-in-law and brother-in-law are retired schooteachers or government employees and draw government checks.
The issue is that those of us who have to provide for our own old age via savings or pensions resent government retirement plans in which the beneficiaries put little or no of their own money into. Lifetime medical care. Inflation adjusted pensions paid for by taxpayers.
And we have to worry that social security, into which we paid for many years could on a whim be jerked out from under us. And we have to sweat the details on 401ks, hoping we’ve made the correct investment decisions. Money that WE put into the plan, sometimes with a little help from our employers.
Meanwhile government retirees blissfully never miss a lick, protected by armies of government employee unions who swarm at a moments notice to threaten congressmen and legislators if the nest is threatened.
I understand that frustration for sure, but I also know that they work for significantly less money than the rest of American Workers. Most work for 40,000 dollars a year if they are lucky. Plus the government pensions have changed significantly since the late 80’s. For example, if you started working in 1989, you only receive one percent per year towards your retirement check. What I mean is that if you work 25 years, you will receive 25 percent of your final pay check for life. It used to be 2 percent so if you completed 25 years of servive you received 50 percent for life. However they also put money into Thrift Savings which is sorta a 401K. Also they pay for medical costs now more than ever. It really is not as great as it sounds anymore. I really don’t think any job is great anymore come to think of it....lol.
1. Borrow 30 trillion dollars from our future.
2. Send each voter 60 or younger $200,000 if they agree to give up ALL forms of public assistance, including social security, Medicare, prescription drug, welfare, etc for the rest of their lives.
3. Whatever percentage of those accepting this offer is, the entire government workforce charged with delivering these "benefits" is fired. If any of them are any good, the private sector will take them in.
4. Eliminate corporate taxes entirely.
5. Install a national retail sales tax of 10%
6. Return all power originally vested to the states back to the states and get the feds out of the business of controlling everything under the sun. This will reduce the federal workforce even more.
7. Get out of the way as the private sector begins to grow itself out of our current national debt, which under this proposal would actually SHRINK from 57 trillion dollars to 44 trillion dollars.