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What public-sector unions have wrought
pundicity ^ | 10/2010 | Jeff Jacoby

Posted on 02/22/2011 6:08:40 PM PST by RobertClark

One way or another, government employees must be weaned from their exorbitant defined-benefit pension plans. Those plans should be closed completely to new employees and frozen for current employees. Already-vested benefits cannot be touched, but all retirement benefits going forward ought to be accrued within a defined-contribution plan requiring employee contributions. Without depriving employees of any benefits they have earned to date, governments have to be able to amend the terms on which future benefits are earned. Tens of millions of Americans working in the private sector—including many belonging to labor unions—know from first-hand experience that the terms and conditions of future employment can be changed. That is how real life works, and a government job should not confer immunity from real life.

FDR was right. Collective bargaining has no place in the public sector. It inevitably leads to abuse. Favoritism, undue influence, lack of transparency, manipulation of government policy, the relentless mulcting of the taxpayer—this is the poisoned fruit of turning government agencies into union shops. It goes without saying that public employees ought to be as free as anyone else to join professional associations and affinity organizations. They are certainly entitled to all the protections of the civil rights laws and of a reasonable civil service system. But labor unions should have no right of exclusive representation in any government workplace and no right to negotiate wages and benefits with public officials who crave their votes and political support.

Public-sector collective bargaining has been a mistake—a mistake whose ruinous, expensive, and corrupting effects are climaxing in the onrushing public-pension tsunami. There is no easy way to undo that mistake. But as the gathering crisis makes vividly clear, there are many good reasons to try.

(Excerpt) Read more at jeffjacoby.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: corruption; democrats; governmentemployees; publicsectorunions; unions; wisconsinshowdown
This is an excellent read. The information is clear, concise, well documented and presented well.
1 posted on 02/22/2011 6:08:41 PM PST by RobertClark
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To: RobertClark
Already-vested benefits cannot be touched

Unreasonably vested should be touched. Why should someone who paid 6-7% of a salary get that final year salary for 20+ years. THEY NEVER COULD HAVE SAVED THAT MUCH! The guaranteed returns are ridiculous. The paid funds should be pro-rated versus what was paid in versus SSI. SSI should be the only government pension!!!

2 posted on 02/22/2011 6:13:11 PM PST by King Moonracer (Bad lighting and cheap fabric, that's how you sell clothing.....)
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To: RobertClark

3 posted on 02/22/2011 6:13:11 PM PST by WOBBLY BOB ( "I don't want the majority if we don't stand for something"- Jim Demint)
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To: RobertClark
And misses one of the really big points. State employees can receive contributions to a retirement plan free of federal income tax. Private sector employees can't.

What we need first is a revision to the tax laws so that we are all equal under the law (one of those unused clauses in the Constitution as I recall).

Else, all you have here with the "contribution deal" is the conversion of otherwise UNTAXED INCOME into TAXABLE INCOME.

Conservatives don't believe in tax increases.

4 posted on 02/22/2011 6:13:28 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah

When you hear of dividends or capital gains being touted by the Democrats (and parroted by the MSM) as “un-earned income” but they completely let go the fact that over 75% of the public employee pensions and benefits are purely expenditures from the tax coffers MAKES ME INSANELY ANGRY.

They earn nothing.

Privatize.


5 posted on 02/22/2011 6:19:12 PM PST by wac3rd (Somewhere in Hell, Ted Kennedy snickers....)
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To: RobertClark
Illinois may seek federal guarantee of pension bonds

This is what they want to do and remember the too big to fail banks? We have to keep an eye open and make sure they can't socialize those pensions to everyone in America.

6 posted on 02/22/2011 6:25:27 PM PST by FromLori (FromLori">)
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To: wac3rd
You'll find most state and municipal retirement funds are heavily invested in stocks, bonds, annuities (which are in turn based on stocks and bonds but managed by companies like Fidelity).

You'll recall that Obama's General Motors shenanigan involved ripping off an Indiana Teacher's Retirement Fund that held GM bonds.

7 posted on 02/22/2011 6:31:26 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: King Moonracer
BTW, not everybody who accrues vesting gets delivery of the pension. That's because people die. The actuarial analysis behind any pension plan assumes the same.

The individual plans assume that even if you die your relatives get some. That's not true with these group pension plans.

8 posted on 02/22/2011 6:33:21 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: King Moonracer
Unreasonably vested should be touched. Why should someone who paid 6-7% of a salary get that final year salary for 20+ years. THEY NEVER COULD HAVE SAVED THAT MUCH! The guaranteed returns are ridiculous. The paid funds should be pro-rated versus what was paid in versus SSI. SSI should be the only government pension!!!

Ask pilots of bankrupt airlines that defaulted on pension funds. Retired and retiring public employees should indeed be vulnerable to pension adjustments when the jurisdiction was bankrupted by wastefulness masquerading as merit and generosity. Give them the same ratio that the PBGC gave the pilots.

9 posted on 02/22/2011 6:58:06 PM PST by jimfree (In 2012 Sarah Palin will continue to have more relevant quality executive experience than B. Obama.)
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To: FromLori

Don’t lead opposition to this with ‘No,’ nor “H*** No” but rather with asking why the Obama should be guaranteeing Illinois’s bonds in support of Obama’s OWN pension. After all he worked longer for IL State Legislature than for any other job. I bet he was promised a nice pension for it and the conflict of interest therein should faze somebody above and beyond the many who’ll oppose any bailout.


10 posted on 02/22/2011 6:58:44 PM PST by JohnBovenmyer
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To: RobertClark

Forget all this, write a check tomorrow to every public employee for their entire contribution to their pension funds including 5% yearly compounded interest and close them. Deny any permission to sue to restore the benefits in court as a sovereign entity, and say goodbye.

If they don’t like it, tough. Just because someone promised you the ability to rob indefinitely the public funds doesn’t make it legal. It is still robbing, and you’re still a criminal.


11 posted on 02/22/2011 8:50:23 PM PST by kingu (Legislators should read what they write!)
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To: kingu

Glad I’m already a Federal retiree with a pension!


12 posted on 02/22/2011 9:06:28 PM PST by Poundstone (A recent Federal retiree and proud of it!)
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To: RobertClark

bttt


13 posted on 02/22/2011 10:36:28 PM PST by ELS (Vivat Benedictus XVI!)
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