Posted on 08/05/2013 5:20:19 AM PDT by John W
Detroit, you're not alone.
Across the nation, cities and states are watching Detroit's largest-ever municipal bankruptcy filing with fear. Years of underfunded retirement promises to public sector workers, which helped lay Detroit low, could plunge them into a similar financial hole.
A CNBC.com analysis of more than 120 of the nation's largest state and local pension plans finds they face a wide range of financial burdens as aging work forces near retirement.
Thanks to a patchwork of accounting practices and rosy investment assumptions, it's not even clear just how big a financial hole many states and cities have dug for themselves. That may soon change, thanks to a new set of government accounting standards that could serve as a nasty wake-up call to states and cities relying on rosy scenarios and head-in-the-sand accounting.
Even less clear is who will pay to clean up the messes. Will it be the millions of retirees owed trillions of dollars in benefits, the bondholders who lent states and cities trillions more, or local taxpayers who may have to pay more to cover the shortfalls or see deeper cuts in public services?
Regardless, the painful process will likely play out for years.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
As Margaret Thatcher once said, "The problem with socialism is that eventually, you run out of other people's money." Thanks to Obama and the liberals, other people's money is running out faster than ever.
hmmmm, I wonder what these cities share in common ?
I just can’t put my finger on it.
Welcome to the party, NBC,...now that it's almost over. Where were you when conservatives were years ago screaming to high heaven about this insanity?!
Many pension plans were funded.
Those who ran the funded plans invested those pension funds.
Then the Stock Market crashed and cost millions, then they lowered the interest rates on funds invested.
Even good plans could not survive under the new Obama regime.
ping
>Then the Stock Market crashed and cost millions, then they lowered the interest rates on funds invested.
Even good plans could not survive under the new Obama regime.<
Many individuals who believed in providing for their own retirement lost huge percentages of their equity in the stock market crash, in addition to losing income with the lowered interest rates.
The pain has been spread around pretty equally, so these government workers don’t get much sympathy from those believing in personal responsibility.
Don’t worry! There are plenty of private IRA’s, CD’s and general savings by we who planned for retirement:
The government can seize, I mean use, in the name of:
“We are all in this together”, “it’s unfair”, “hoarders who will not share” or my favorite phrase—”spreading the wealth”
The confiscation of private retirement is coming. The left main voting block will NOT be allowed to go without.
“hmmmm, I wonder what these cities share in common ?
I just can’t put my finger on it.”
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Well, they are obviously all controlled by evil white, Republican, Christian racists, right?
As this crises heats up we will see more and more calls to nationalize the retirement system (and its assets) just as we have with the health care system.
Wrong. Pandemic of parasitic libtards is plaguing the nation.
You have a point. I was only pointing out that many pension system problems stemmed from the Housing crisis and bad decisions made by Barney Franks and the Feds , and not from bad bargaining at the table which did not foresee the Government screwing up so badly.
Then, check out their estimates for unfunded Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare.
Then, read what others say about the GAO figures. For example, professor Laurence Kotlikoff at Boston University calculates the fiscal gap to be $222 trillion rather than the only $120 trillion estimated by the GAO.
Then, ask yourself it is possible for an economy that generates approximately $15 trillion per year in gross (i.e. before deducting food, housing, taxes, etc.) output to ever pay for more than a small portion of those obligations.
Bottom line: There simply isn't anywhere nearly enough wealth or productive capacity to confiscate to pay for the promises made by politicians. All persons, federal and state, dependent upon publicly funded retirement plans are screwed.
Can the city of detroit make a plea to their union brethren in the NFLPA help out the cause? I’m sure the Lions will come to their aid with a few autographed footballs.
Whipping up the propaganda push for the BIG BAILOUT
Many of the pension fund directors, with input from the pension owners, still projected 8 or 9% annual returns. Even during market downswings. Consequently, many pension plans became under-funded, while their liabilities continued to grow.
And Dave Ramsey claims it’s easy to get 10%.
Those “owed” gubment pensions are gubment workers. Surely, you remember them? Those fine folks like the DMV lady, the militarized jack-booted thug in a SWAT costume we paid for, the “swarm of officiers sent hither to eat out our substance”, those folks?
The truth is that like educators in the Pooblik Skrewl Collective, they did something between little and nothing to deserve those pensions. Teachers are a case in point, as they took our money while knowing their students were advanced without mastering the curriculum.
That automatic advancement to the next grade guaranteed that they would fail in the next grade as they did not have the knowledge to master the following year’s curriculum.
Those who take money but do not perform the tasks for which they were hired have committed an array of civil and criminal offenses.
Defund ‘em accordingly.
They richly deserve their coming “screwing”.
Allegedly, an itinerant carpenter once noted “He who will not work shall not eat”.
But, he was just a white, Eurocentric racist male - right?
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