Posted on 12/09/2013 7:07:47 AM PST by SeekAndFind
We are locked in a generational war, which will get worse before it gets better. Indeed, it may not get better for a long time. No one wants to admit this, because it's ugly and unwelcome. Parents are supposed to care for their children, and children are supposed to care for their aging parents. For families, these collective obligations may work. But what makes sense for families doesn't always succeed for society as a whole. The clash of generations is intensifying.
Last week, a federal judge ruled that Detroit qualifies for municipal bankruptcy. This almost certainly means that pensions and health benefits for the city's retired workers will be trimmed. There's a basic conflict between paying for all retirement benefits and supporting adequate current services (police, schools, parks, sanitation, roads). The number of Detroit's retired workers has swelled, benefits were not adequately funded and the city's economy isn't strong enough to take care of both without self-defeating tax increases.
The math is unforgiving. Detroit now has two retirees for every active worker, reports the Detroit Free Press; in 2012, that was 10,525 employees and 21,113 retirees. Satisfying retirees inevitably shortchanges their children and grandchildren. Though Detroit's situation is extreme, it's not unique. Pension benefits were once thought to be legally and politically impregnable. Pension cuts in Illinois (last week), Rhode Island and elsewhere have shattered this assumption. Chicago is considering reductions for its retirees.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
If we want to kvetch about supporting someone else lets start with the career parasites.
My generation is so screwed. I think the Baby Boomers will have a mostly normal retirement, but I’m pretty sure the Millennial are going to euthanize the generation X’er’s instead of paying for our social security.
Today's municipal retiree's are merely the career parasites of days past.
Their contracts mortgaged today's present, but today's parasites can't support yesterday's parasites.
Simple as that.
The entire lot of them can just rot for all I care.
FReegards!
Which is going to really hurt the Millennials. They are waiting for the lower tier jobs to open up so they can move out of the basement.
Just remember it was today’s 18-26 year olds that voted overwhelmingly for Obama, and it was the retirees that voted primarily for conservatives. So I only have so much sympathy to expend for today’s youth.
In answer to the question, fewer workers than before with their vastly increased medical expenses.
Soylent Green to the rescue!
AP article from the Obama Media Group playing the class warfare game.
When you read into the article it is apparent that most of the “new rich” are Obama supporters who now are crying about high income taxes and redistribution mandates imposed by Obama.
Boo F-n hoo. LOL
Their success has implications for politics and policy.
(AP) HOLD FOR RELEASE MONDAY, DEC. 9, 2013 AT 3:00 A.M. EST Graphic shows affluence by age group and...
“The group is more liberal than lower-income groups on issues such as abortion and gay marriage, according to an analysis of General Social Survey data by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. But when it comes to money, their views aren’t so open. They’re wary of any government role in closing the income gap.”
“Last week, President Barack Obama asserted that growing inequality is “the defining challenge of our time,” signaling that it will be a major theme for Democrats in next year’s elections.”
Rising riches: 1 in 5 in US reaches affluence
Email this Story
Dec 9, 7:26 AM (ET)
By HOPE YEN
WASHINGTON (AP) - It’s not just the wealthiest 1 percent.
Fully 20 percent of U.S. adults become rich for parts of their lives, wielding outsize influence on America’s economy and politics. This little-known group may pose the biggest barrier to reducing the nation’s income inequality.
The growing numbers of the U.S. poor have been well documented, but survey data provided to The Associated Press detail the flip side of the record income gap - the rise of the “new rich.”
Made up largely of older professionals, working married couples and more educated singles, the new rich are those with household income of $250,000 or more at some point during their working lives. That puts them, if sometimes temporarily, in the top 2 percent of earners.
Even outside periods of unusual wealth, members of this group generally hover in the $100,000-plus income range, keeping them in the top 20 percent of earners.
Companies increasingly are marketing to this rising demographic, fueling a surge of “mass luxury” products and services from premium Starbucks coffee and organic groceries to concierge medicine and VIP lanes at airports. Political parties are taking a renewed look at the up-for-grabs group, once solidly Republican.
They’re not the traditional rich...
Read at: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131209/DAAIRDU81.html
Fire career politicians—with TERM LIMITS.
Detroits problem is that workers and businesses fled leaving government workers, welfare recipients and prisoners behind, all get taken care of by non-existing taxpayers.
Here’s some great progressive ideas for Detroit and similar cities like baltimore:
1) Raise the minimum wage to $20 per hour
2) Build a Berlin like wall to keep taxpayers from fleeing
3) Implement Obamacare employer mandate right now, workers deserve free health care.
They are going to extend Social Security tax above the current cap to every last dollar of income earned. Take that to the bank.
If you have Netflix or other streaming video service see this great 2012 documentary about firefighters in Detroit and how this is a look at the future of many big cities today run into the ground by thieving Democrat politicians.
Storyline
A documentary about Detroit told through the eyes of firefighters charged with the thankless task of saving a city that many have written off as dead.
One Year on the Front Lines of the Battle to Save Detroit
“BURN”
Documentary
BURN - Official Theatrical Trailer (2013)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiMZvMdvas
TRAILER
http://www.youtube.com/user/detroitfirefilm
Detroit on Fire- a documentary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDoUpXNmcZA
“They are going to extend Social Security tax above the current cap to every last dollar of income earned. Take that to the bank.”
Are we ever going to kick out the totally bogus categories of ‘disability’ that clintoon burdened Social Security with when he “reformed welfare”?
Naa, not a chance in Hell.
bfl
With regard to retired bureaucrats, I agree. They’re as worthy as the non-retired kind.
Yup!!
“Statism survives by looting; a free country survives by production.” Rand
Detroit — due largely to Coleman Young (may he rot in hell) — became an icon of racism and stupidity because of an ideology of “gimme” from the takers, unions and his utterly corrupt city government. This was not helped by the fact that the maker population simply would not stand up to the race pimps.
Unfortunately this is now becoming, to a great extent, a structural problem. The machines have been pushing those on the wrong side of the intelligence bell curve out of various job markets for years. This will get much, much worse fairly quickly. In the end most people will have no significant economic purpose because those former workers will not be able to compete on any level. So, we have a structural machine designed to make an underclass.
I wish I had an easy answer but this looks to be the future. The one and only thing that is evident is that the maker community needs to be much more “in your face” proactive and a lot less wimpy. Otherwise we will wind up slaves to the dullards and their bureaucratic masters.
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