What is Public Service? It's a Sacrifice. It is Supposed to be a Short Term Sacrifice Before You Go into the Private Sector and Produce Real Economic Growth
Traditionally, retirement for all Americans was based on the three-legged stool of Social Security, pensions and private retirement savings (401ks, IRAs). The pension leg has mostly withered away for private sector workers, but they still have the other two legs. Most government workers still have traditional pensions, which are supposed to be deferred compensation, meaning you pay someone lower in the immediate but make up for it by continuing to pay them after they have finished working. It isn’t some extra benefit: it is simply a different form of payment for the services already rendered.
Private citizens watch public employees retire at 55 while the rest of us common people have to wait until 67 (the plan is to move the retirement age to 70) to retire on Social Security that might not even be there. The rest of us must figure out how to retire with our 401k's. Why can't government workers do the same? We are being scammed. We have to figure out how to make SS and our 401k's add up to enough money for us to live in retirement. And to pull it off, a lot of us will need to work past 70. At the same time we're telling government workers this: "Don't worry cupcake, I got your back. You go ahead and retire at 52. Sit there and look pretty for 30 years while I work to assure that your ass is covered. I may not know how to fund my own retirement, but I am happy knowing than I can fund yours. I have no problem working past 70 for you." When the government talks of raising the retirement age, they are talking for us, not them. They are not offering to give up a thing. Sacrifice is only meant for the commoner. That's why some cities are going broke. How do you pay thousands of people 90% of their salary to do nothing for 30 years or more? Let these people plan their own retirement as the rest of America must. Time to ween them from the government teat. [altair1013]
Readers say state worker entitlement promises have been too generous and that concessions need to be made. Interesting that municipalities across the country continue to file for bankruptcy protection after over-promising to their retirees. This is despite taxing our middle class to death. Middle income in the US is not keeping pace with growth in Canada, Britain and Sweden. The WHOLE story would also include admitting that entitlement promises have been too generous and that concessions need to be made to taxpayers going forward. There have been at least 54 Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy filings just since 2006, with the largest being Detroit, followed by Stockton, San Bernardino, and Jefferson County, AL, Central Falls, RI and Westfall, PA are some others. Harrisburg, PA filed for bankruptcy in 2011 but the judge denied their petition. NYC-ased hedge fund Bridgewater did a study suggesting that roughly 85% of public pensions will go bankrupt within three decades. US public pensions have $3 trillion of assets with which they are expected to make $10 trillion of retirement payments over the next 30 years. This implies a required annual return of roughly 9%, vs. the current 30 year US Treasury yield of 3.44%. [Source]
Members of Congress ARE workers in the public sector. Government employees in the United States — especially when one includes contractors, lobbyists, and others who qualify as well-heeled and powerful elites — have profited quite well at the expense of the people. It is no coincidence that Washington DC and its surrounding counties are among the wealthiest in the U.S.. And elsewhere, Chicago public school teachers make nearly triple the median income of Chicago.
Congressional leaders unveiled a massive $1.01 trillion spending on December 9, 2014. For the first time, Congress also would allow the benefits of current private sector retirees to be severely cut, part of an effort to save some of the nation’s most distressed pension plans. The measure would alter 40 years of federal law and could affect millions of workers, many of them part of a shrinking corps of middle-income employees in businesses such as trucking, construction and supermarkets. The idea is reluctantly supported by some unions and retirement fund managers who see it as the only way to salvage pensions in plans that are in imminent danger of running out of money. But it also has stirred strong opposition from retirees who could face deep pension cuts and from advocates eager to keep retiree pensions sacrosanct, even in cases when funds are in a deep financial hole. The advocates argue that allowing cuts to plans would open the door to trims for other retirees later.
It's the private sector that is paying the salaries of the public sector, ergo public sector salaries must be inline with private sector salaries. It makes no sense for citizens who average $50,000 a year to pay for public sector retirement packages that run in six and seven figures. Furthermore, if someone in the public sector doesn't think he/she is paid enough, he/she can go out into the private sector and try to earn what they think they're worth. Remember, public sector employment falls under the guise of "public servant" not "master over the commoners". Anyone taking a public sector paycheck is technically on the dole, since it's the private sector taxpayers paying for it all. When those on the dole exceed those paying the taxes to fund their government paychecks, the system collapses. It is not sustainable when government pensions and benefits exceed the private sector's working income. It would be apropo if all college graduates would take that truth into consideration when they decide to opt for the cushy government paycheck. [Source]
Public employees simply don't CARE if they are particularly useful or if the taxpayers can afford them. They seem themselves as an untouchable protected class. [Wildmouse]
Our world is faced with significant budget problems, the likes of which have not been seen since the 1930's. Most public employees do not comprehend this fact, because they have been living in a fantasy land where they earn in the top 10 percentile of all workers. It seems there will be some reversion to benefits and the mean of incomes. The citizens are tapped out, and many are not comfortable paying their civil servants approximately twice the national average wage for their services. They would pay if they could, but they have had wage cuts, 401k cuts, benefit cuts, home value cuts, stock price cuts, etc. And they don't want higher taxes. Most of us in the private sector pay five to six times what public workers pay for healthcare, and we don't have retirement pensions. I am on a 5% paycut for the past two years with no pay raise for the past four years, and I pay over $80 a week for a lousy Blue Cross plan. [Source]
If the county is really paying $33,000 in benefits on a $58,000 salary (56%?) they're getting out-negotiated bad, the taxpayers are getting screwed, and the union is making out like a bandit [public workers are hired to serve the public and that's why we shouldn't allow them to be unionized]. That sounds about right given the way our national and state government is run. As a small business owner it cost me about 33% when I could afford to offer full benefits. Wow, that's 23% difference; I think I just solved their budget problem. Sorry I pointed that out, I guess you'll have to raise my taxes or threaten to not supply us with police and fire protection, maybe take away school lunches, stop bus service, cut off grandma's health care or something else that will force us to pay more instead of the government spending less. How many of you will even get pensions? How many of you can get two pensions? Or actually earn more in retirement that you did when you worked? Yes folks, it is possible thanks to the generosity of our government. These problems are going to become more and more frequent until we get our government in line with the private sector. [Source]
The commoners are starting to wake up with regards to the massive trough feeder pensions. The response from the California legislature is to offer the commoners a bite of the poisoned pension apple like you’ve seen in AB1234, etc…. The politicians are playing the ‘come join us’ card, right out of the union playbook. They want to add the private commoners to government-controlled retirement funds to stop their complaints. Naturally, the private commoners pensions would be nothing like the public pensions we see. They would throw the commoners a few crumbs to shut them up!!! HAH! We’ve got certified morons running this country who couldn’t give a damn about the common good of the people. IT’S ALL ABOUT THEM!!! [Beelzebub]
We commoners fight for scraps and feel lucky if we can make our monthly bills without going into debt. We avoid looking at the growing number of homeless in our city parks. We say a prayer thanking God that it's not us, yet feel queasy that it soon could be. We've forgotten what took 100 years to learn -- only by uniting will the working classes stave off hunger, disease and exploitation. You may feel safe today, but if this "Great Recession" hasn't taught you that your life's circumstances could change in a heartbeat, then you haven't been paying attention. But all of this is so much bloviating. Unless we pass an amendment to the constitution reforming campaign finance NOTHING will change. Most of us are distracted by shiny objects -- and I no longer believe that the root cause will ever be addressed: our politicians are ALL bought and therefore refuse to problem solve. I know...how 'bout another war? Rome, anyone...? I will not "invest" it in the crap game known as Wall St. I've watched my parents lose the majority of their savings during the last THREE crashes of this new century. When it comes to my sisters they will receive about $1200 - $1400 from Social Security if that hasn't been raided by the corporate uber class. Either way none of us will be able to fully retire. I'm sure I'll be living with at least one of them in my old age if we live that long. My story isn't unique. It's the norm. [Teaching Tolerance]
Most of the time, when it comes to issues like taxes and benefits, even "sacrifice" can only be prompted by appealing to self-interest. If people of any group can be convinced, somehow, that short-term sacrifice has a chance of leading to long-term gain, they're more likely to do it. If the upper-classes thought that "sacrificing" to improve the lot of the broad-range of consumers would eventually increase their own bottom line, they'd be more likely to do it. If middle-class taxpayers could be convinced that paying more would enhance the benefits available to them in the future, they'd be more likely to do it too. But if people are told that they're just giving away more for the benefit of others with little hope of getting anything out of it themselves, whether they're wealthy or not, they'll naturally resist.
George Carlin Was Right (2005)
There's a reason for this, there's a reason education sucks, and it's the same reason it will never ever ever be fixed. It's never going to get any better. Don't look for it. Be happy with what you've got... because the owners of this country don’t want that. I'm talking about the real owners now... the real owners. The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.
Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else.
But I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. That’s right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fuckin’ years ago. They don’t want that.
You know what they want? They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shittier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it. And now they’re coming for your Social Security money. They want your fuckin' retirement money. They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street.
And you know something? They’ll get it. They’ll get it all from you sooner or later 'cause they own this fuckin' place. It’s a big club and you ain't in it. You and I are not in the big club. By the way, it’s the same big club they use to beat you over the head with all day long when they tell you what to believe. All day long beating you over the head with their media telling you what to believe, what to think and what to buy.
The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. Good, honest, hard-working people: white collar, blue collar, it doesn’t matter what color shirt you have on. Good, honest, hard-working people continue — these are people of modest means — continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about them. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care about you at all! At all! At all! And nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on. The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant...
Time to scrap public pensions before they all go bust?
IN FOCUS: New York City and Chicago may have same fate as Detroit after facing pension problems
JOHN TAMNY: Yes, get rid of them. What is public service? It's a sacrifice. It is supposed to be a short term sacrifice before you go into the private sector and produce real economic growth. The problem now with high government pay and big pension plans is that we are creating lifelong government workers that are a burden to those working in the real economy. If you get rid of them, they will have an incentive to get back into the real world and cities will no longer have pension problems.
RICK UNGAR: In New York, 95 percent of every public employee doesn't contribute a nickel into their retirement, which is not ok. We don't need to scrap these programs, we can't forget about people who have worked their whole career and are expecting their pension, but it is time to reform them.
STEVE FORBES: Unless they do file for bankruptcy, cities cannot scrap most of these plans because of state constitutions which say you cannot do that. So you have to negotiate with these unions to do it. What they should start with is having 401k plans for new workers and then try if you get higher interest rates to annuitize what their obligations have been so far and then cap it in the future.
RICH KARLGAARD: Unfortunately our politicians are mathematically ignorant. For example, take CalPERS which manages the California state pension fund, it is assuming a 7.5 percent annual return from now until Armageddon. No one is getting 7.5 percent today without putting their money at risk. 5 percent is a more realistic assumption today. Pensions should be cut by a 1/3 right off the bat to reflect real market returns.
ELIZABETH MACDONALD: We see reform happening already, you can change the structure of government pensions for future hires, meaning into a 401k. They are doing it in places like Alaska and San Diego, Utah is going into reform, so is DC. You can cut unfunded health care benefits, so they can be cut without going to court, that's already happening in Stockton and Viejo. The irony is that healthcare maybe taking care of this problem already. Health reform is weighing whether to hire new workers or cut back on city services. So do you cut back on city services like police and firefighters or reform pension systems?
SABRINA SCHAEFFER: There is another side of the story which is American taxpayers. There are hard working Americans out there that shouldn't have to shoulder for unreasonable compensation packages. The financial landscape is shifting, Gallup recently found that current retirees are relying largely on pensions and social security, but those approaching retirement, future retirees are planning on relying on their 401k and their IRAs. I think it's important to remember that people are accustomed to doing these private, individualized savings plan and we need to start shifting with those younger workers.
The government is trying to close what it calls a "loophole" so government workers won't have to pay all their health care premiums
STEVE FORBES: If the cooking is so great, why don't they eat it? The fact of the matter is that they don't like it. As for the saying, oh we will have a brain drain, that assumes there are brains to drain and if they are, they should be in the private sector. If these people are so essential, give them a pay raise and let the taxpayers decide if they want to spend that extra money.
RICK UNGAR: This is a made-to-order PR thing for people who are against Obamacare, I get it. It's the result of a little number that a GOP senator pulled at the beginning, it all went in a certain direction, and it was ill-planned and silly. Congress is being treated like a small business; they can go to the exchanges, in fact they still have to. They are entitled to pay a portion of the premiums and pay whatever portion they decide to pay off their employees. It's no different than what happens to anyone working here at FOX, who has their insurance covered by their employer.
SABRINA SCHAEFFER: I think Michael Cannon over at the Cato Institute put it perfectly, he said now we have a ruling class versus the rest of us. Obamacare is for the rest of us, the commoners. All of these people up in Congress are getting out of it; it's not just Congress, what about President Obama and his family? What about the justices and their families, the Supreme Court and their families, federal judges and 1,200 corporations and unions? This is picking winners and losers at its worst.
BILL BALDWIN: Obama said if you have a health care plan and you like it, you can keep it. Why not let these slobs keep their plans. If Steve thinks they are overpaid, let them put a bill through his Congress and cut their pay. Private sector people aren't taking pay cuts.
JOHN TAMNY: Government workers are an economy suffocating burden. The last thing you want to do is create an incentive for more people to go to work for government. If anything, they should have a more onerous health plan so they have an incentive to exit the government sector and not be a burden on us.
MIKE OZANIAN: That's the hypocrisy of Obamacare because when a lot of people in the private sector said that's one of the problems with this bill, it's going to cause a brain drain in the private sector, they denied that, they said no, that wouldn't happen. By the way, lots of people have lost their coverage with Obamacare. It's just one more thing about this that the president said that is not true.
[Watch] Riot Police Take Off Their Helmets in Solidarity with Protesters
December 13, 2013
UFP News - In a rare demonstration of solidarity with the common man, Italian riot police are shown in this video removing their helmets and standing with anti-EU demonstrators in Turin, Italy.
Commoners from all walks of life, from truck drivers to students are out in the street, protesting the state of the Italian economy, the single currency and fuel prices.
The protests grew out of the “Pitchfork Movement,” begun by a group of Sicilian farmers demanding government reforms. It has evolved into a national rebellion against banks, the Italian tax collection agency, “Equitalia,” the European Union, and the Socialist-backed minority government.
Euronews reports “Many share the protesters’ anger and at one point police officers in Turin took off their helmets, in a show of solidarity.”
Giorgio Bissoli, spokesman for the Azione Rurale protest group told Canale 5 television,
“We farmers are on the streets to say ‘Enough!’ to the state, the government, the unions. We just can’t manage anymore. Our main priority is that they all have to go!”Widespread discontent over fuel prices, globalization and the draconian austerity measures of the European Union are also expected to result in a major anti-EU backlash in next year’s European parliamentary elections.
The protesters claim to represent, “the unemployed, casual workers, pensioners, workers in every sector, students, mothers and fathers,” and see it as their duty “to throw out the criminals who hold power.”
The movement appears to be a genuine populist revolt against policies that have devastated Italy’s economy.
The refusal of the police to abuse their fellow citizens and their willingness to demonstrate through their actions that they share some of the same positions as the demonstrators is encouraging. There have been countless examples where they follow instructions as the oppressive arms of their increasingly totalitarian leadership.
A refusal by the enforcement arm of a nation to commit immoral or questionable acts in the name of upholding the status quo and propping up an unpopular government often leads to social change.
All governments across the globe should pay attention to what is now going on in Italy. Those events may be a precursor of things to come as austerity demands made by the banking forces in control of government policy become more than what the public is willing to tolerate and accept.
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