Posted on 03/08/2011 7:56:59 AM PST by Poundstone
When Erin McFarlane looks at public workers, she sees lucrative pension benefits she doesn't ever expect to get. And it makes her mad.
"I don't think that a federal employee or government employee is worth any more than anybody else who does their job and does it well," said the Slinger, Wis., woman. She's been working a couple of bartending jobs since January, when she was laid off from her job at a Harley Davidson plant after almost a decade.
She's not alone in seeing public servants as public enemies in some ways.
It's a case of pension envy.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Interesting. This article is focused on the longstanding problem of state retirees’ pension underfunding, although the first quote is from a citizen who confuses pensions of state and federal retirees. The two types of pensions couldn’t be more different. Unlike state pensions, federal pensions are fundable by the federal government — which, if necessary, can fulfill its obligations by simply printing more money. States can’t do that; they either have to raise taxes or cut spending in other areas to satisfy their obligations.
It’s an important distinction with real ramifications.
I can’t imagine why anyone would have taken a govt job 10 years ago when they could have had steady work at the Harley plant
My how times have changed
Federal or State it doesn’t matter. 90% of them are parasitic leeches on the body politic.
I totally agree.
My fear is that Cali, Ill, and NY will eventually be allowed to issue bonds with a FedGov guarantee.
Hetty Rosenstein, the NJ director of the Communications Workers of America, which represents New Jersey government workers says gripes about her members' pensions are misplaced.We make our own pensions, dear Hetty, if we can, from the meager scraps we have left AFTER PAYING YOURS. That's not exactly "envy" now is it?"There's pension envy because people who are working in the private sector, they're being denied pensions," she said.
Not at all! It is OUTRAGE.
If you think these pensions are bad you should know what the ‘poor’ receive each month. One person whose grandaughter lives with her gets $2,000 a MONTH government check, another gets a ‘crazy check’ from the government because he can’t behave in class.
It makes me want to puke!
There is no telling what the taxpayers are paying for because the politicians aren’t being honest about it!
It’s time to crack down on ALL of the corruption and GOVERNMENT CHECKS to people who are just gaming the system (some for generations)!
Here’s fun fact to know and tell: The president of US is the higest paid federal employee.
Who comes in second? And what is the amount of his/her annual salary?
These are the key words. Social injustice and oppression of the non-government working class. The Federal government must step in and MANDATE all private employers to immediately issue non-funded pension to all workers to make society fair... grab your ankles, Mr. Businessman...
If the federal government simply meets it's obligations by printing more money, what's the difference between doing that, and devalueing the worth of your own savings through inflation, and taxing you outright to pay for it?
Either way they're making you poorer so they can be richer.
The AP - what do you expect. A news co-op created by the elites to “shape” opinions.
Those are key words, but the most key is the one. “Envy.” It is a mocker’s word, one that tears down good things in the name of a misplaced sense of fairness, in context it is a mock and a dare. She’s foments discord with it, a discord that makes all poorer.
Let public employees and elected officials be paid the regular market wage of their place and time, and not get benefits from the employer at all, for with their wages they can each buy benefits as we all must do. When they are protected and insulated from the affairs of normal private sector people they come to indulge in daily oppressions of us through burdening regulations and fees which they are free off.
Going to get heat on this but you can’t count on anyone for a pension,we are on our own.Some manage to win some don’t a plan is all we have to work with.
Amerika’s nomenklatura
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=528809
it’s becoming increasingly clear that America is now run by a new, privileged class of bureaucrats.
For those who remember the old Soviet Union, it was a grim place — at least for average citizens. But not so for those in government. Contrary to the official ideals of equality and a classless society that the ruling communist regime espoused, the USSR created a privileged class of party members inside government — the nomenklatura.
This semipermanent bureaucracy earned higher incomes, got better health care, ate better food and had greater job security than average Russians, the much-despised proletarians. Today, our bloated federal government seems, in significant ways, to be creating this same dynamic.
as unflattering a trait as envy is, the GOP had better start getting a whole lot louder on this point if they expect to win on this issue.
I have no problem with collective bargaining providing it’s not on the back of the tax-payer. Only assholes would insist otherwise.
True, they are our employees! What an attitude problem they have ...
I have a problem with collective bargaining. Closed-shop unions are a problem.
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