My Grandfather retired from Coca Cola and now that is a retirement program.....Oh and it is not a government program or company.
That’s annoying, because after all we all have to pay for Coca Cola pensions.
Ah no wait, we don’t. Coca Cola is a private company that doesn’t get to take money from taxpayers by force of arms.
Whereas we all have to pay for bloated Government pensions. Also: Government pensions are not subject to market forces and can grow without let or hindrance.
Two excellent reasons why all Government pensions (indeed: all conciliary to Government workers) must be subjected to dispassionate scrutiny.
I understand that. But times have changed and Coca-Cola isn't exactly an average employer. Outside of companies like Coke or unionized jobs like the UAW there is usually a great difference between government retirement and private sector retirement.
Talk to a cross section of people working in the private sector today and compare their retirement plans (if any) to government plans.
Not only that, but government employees have almost 100% certainty that the government retirement plan will be there when they are ready to retire. Many private sector plans go belly up before employees are able to retire. Sometimes even people already retired lose their retirement when plans go bankrupt.
It's a whole different world when you work outside the government in 2012.