Posted on 12/03/2013 8:42:44 AM PST by VideoPaul
Officially, the City of Detroit is the largest municipality in U.S. history to enter Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
(Excerpt) Read more at wxyz.com ...
That is a VERY good point.
“Good. This business about politicians giving away our future for political favors needs to come to an end.”
Not sure this is the outcome of this. In fact, this just let’s the government off the hook. Gives the crooks a free pass to promise anything and not make good on it.
This is actually not good.
It will ultimately cause people outside of Detroit and Michigan to pay more to support those that the crooked politicians swindled.
Yes of course the problem is the unions and politicians and dem rule for decades.
This let’s them all off the hook, scot free.
Perhaps I’m misreading this. But the private sector - government sector argument is a little too simple in this case. The reason for that is because there are very, very, very few private sector companies still offering defined benefit plans - pensions - in the same way that the government sector does.
So when a large private sector company has to make cutbacks, it either fires people or reduces costs in other ways such as reducing its contribution to the 401k, or reducing its contribution to healthcare premiums, etc. What it cannot do is take the employee’s 401k or tell the employee that it will only receive 10 cents on the dollar from its 401k, which is what could happen to Detroit public employees under bankruptcy.
No doubt the public unions clamored for as many benefits as they could get. But the real bad guys here are the Detroit politicians who failed to say No. The clerks, administrators, janitors, etc. who were promised a pension and made career decisions based in part on that contractual commitment are hardly to blame and in all fairness should not bear the brunt of the bankruptcy. But of course they will.
I’d sure like to see a judge tell the city it won’t allow pensions to be stripped but in return there will be no more collective bargaining on anything but wages. Bondholders would get screwed, but then they certainly had an opportunity to read the prospectus.
This is good news for “rule of law”.
The union thugs thought they could BS their way with intimidation and absurd pre bankruptcy demands.
This is the people taking power back and away from the thug class.
“Sorry but I am under no obligation to fund promises I was not a party to.”
Agree 100%.
This ruling would, though, make it such that you and I are now obligated to pay one way or the other for these people.
It just shifts the burden to support them to the Federal government and Obama is smiling big time.
Unions and crooked dem machine pols are singing happy songs for getting let off the hook.
say what you want but I do feel bad for those that are losing the benefits that were earned over the time of their employment. Even though it makes no sense to pay someone for not working, they did offer it and agreed to pay it as an incentive for employees.
public employees view pensions as free money and a program to be scammed to the maximum self benifit.
Govt pensions should be reduced prospectively but not against those workers who have already earned them. ( That would really be unfair. )"I completely disagree. A contract that has no reasonable expectation of performance is not enforceable. The fact that union workers in the public sector sent their representatives to negotiate in bad faith, basically holding a gun to the the other party until their demands were met, and came out with promises that were a mathematical impossibility is not only the fault of the union leaders and pol's. It is also the fault of EVERY SINGLE UNION EMPLOYEE who advocated the position or silently sat back and quietly capitalized on it.
of interest to you.
Maybe this will allow the unthinkable: demolish the city to a far smaller, manageable size and return the areas that used to have buildings back into productive farmland for now. That could be the beginning of a rebirth of Detroit as a viable city in the very long run.
FYI - commnets at zerohedge…
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-03/detroit-bankruptcy-judge-rules-allow-pension-cuts
You nailed it.
The pensions must be cut drastically.
But if the pensions are curtailed it prevents the taxpayers from paying for it. That's the idea. It's the best result we can get.
“But if the pensions are curtailed it prevents the taxpayers from paying for it. That’s the idea. It’s the best result we can get.”
It prevents only the Detroit or Michigan tax payers from paying for what they promised.
Then the support falls on all of us via Federal government welfare of some sort.
Obama must love it. It is win win win for the Dems.
What about the novelty of going to work & getting a salary - no other strings attached. You provide for your future savings & your health care.
You are right about the shift. O will probably find a way to give them even more than the federal pension bailout guarantee which is usually 50% or less. But this ruling is good news none the less because it sends the message that their limits to politicians promise’s.
“Good. This business about politicians giving away our future for political favors needs to come to an end.”
I certainly agree with that.
But this makes it even more likely for that to happen.
Now they can promise anything, give away anything and the just cry bankruptcy.
Now they know they can get away Scott free.
And then the Feds take over.
They love it.
This gives politicians in these local government fiefdoms carte Blanche to promise anything they want knowing they won’t be held to it.
Popcorn.
“But this ruling is good news none the less because it sends the message that their limits to politicians promise’s.”
I am not as optimistic that message will get through to the promisees.
Whole thing is really bad any which way it goes.
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