I really want to know when America is going to wake up and stop funding public worker pension plans. And, while I'm at it, all you in union pension plans should take note.
With the exception of the aforementioned groups, pensions bit the dusk over decade ago. Anyone over the lage of 40 probably remembers all of the big-name, blue-chip firms that are no longer around where the pensioners - and future pensioners - were screwed out of their retirement. Let's not even get started on the firms that squandered pension plans before law required them to be "safe harbored." Now they're only at the mercy of the same screwballs that created the current financial mess and caused all of our portfolios to tank. So why should the taxpayers be on the hook for someone else's retirement?
I have 401(k) just like most people - or a reasonable facsimile like a 403(b). If we have to save for our retirements out of our own pocket, why shouldn't the public sector? What makes them so special? It's not like they're being underpaid. Worse, our politicians (read "liberal politicians") have created the world's largest beaurocracy in order to have voters beholding to them. Public sector jobs now account for XX% of the total workforce in America. The Founding Fathers would drop dead if they saw how politicians have gutted this country and its economy.
Now I'm not saying that government shouldn't consider an "employer contribution" to a public sector retirement plan, but that shouldn't be a guarantee. Many of us in the free market get varying amounts of employer match - some get none at all.
Before those of you in the public sector or unions start your hand-wringing and weeping (whining), this change need not occur instantly. However, one of the first steps must be to change the terms of all pension plans for new employees only. If government is going to continue to completely fund pension plans for the time being, they should only agree on how much will be contributed based on an actuarial model that places those plans on a par with what the average American worker contributes to their retirement plan - not what should be contributed so that every public sector worker is looking at a $100,000 a year retirement package. The American taxpayer should no longer be responsible for making up for "acts of God," much less those of the devil (does the firm Goldman Sachs come to mind?).
While I'm at it, it's also time that the health insurance plans they get in retirement are reigned in. At the rate the health care is inflating, health insurance benefits are just a large a golden egg.
That's how I see - at least From Where I Sit.
