By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Kasz216 on 26 January 2011
Edit Thread
Killiana1a said:
Kasz216 said


They AREN'T paying as they went though.  They aren't paying at all that's the issue.

Yes, you are correct. Like increased pay, benefits and retirement for airlines employees, public employee pensions are unfunded promises.

Now, I am not going to quibble or say any public employee making less than $100,000 is just a parasitic bureaucratic leech as some would. When the promises are made to the little man who took the City, State, or County position because they knew it would offer a good retirement, then I find it really hard to blame them for this crisis.

Who I blame is public sector management who clear $100,000 easily, get promoted to the max a year or two before they retire, retire, then come out of retirement working for another State agency. This is the double-dipping which is killing the system.

Here is what I believe should be done:

1. Any public sector worker or any public sector manager making $100k or more per year is, by law, prohibited from a public pension. Instead, the State assists them in funding a private 401k for retirement.

2. Public sector workers making under $100k/year are the only ones eligible, by law, for the public employee pension.

As for setting aside the money in a lockbox...Well look how that has turned out for Social Security. Social Security is the first place the Feds dip into come wartime.

Social Security ISN'T put in a lock box.  I mean, maybe you forget the term Lockbox came from... but that was Al Gores plan for reforming social security.

He WANTED to put the money in a Lock Box.

What happens with social security now, is that as soon as the government gets everybodys money what they do is they put it all in US goverment bonds.

In otherwords, if my girlfriend gave me 100 dollars to save for her, it would be like me buying a $110 IOU from myself, then spending that $100 bucks to buy videogames.


You want to see a GOOD government run pension plan?   Look at the Netherlands.  As soon as they get their money for pensions they INVEST it, in stocks.  Not goverment IOU's from itself.

In the economic downturn they had something like a 14% growth rate!  Because as a huge government planning for continious future they can afford to leave money in constantly until it profits, they bought big in the finiancial downturn.

It's a pension plan that does exactly what private pension plans do, and what private investors do to prepare for retirement, but more effective due to governments being able to invest like the ultra rich.