Posted on 04/28/2012 12:55:50 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I predict that someday these debt straddled states will enact legislation that will stop benefit payments to retirees that move out of the state. That would tend to keep the money inside of the state instead of going to a different one with lower cost of living.
While I agree that people should keep their noses out of other people’s business, it is the taxpayer’s business when public employees retire, or at what level of compensation.
It is the taxpayer’s business because there isn’t a single defined benefit public employee pension plan in the US where the public employees have contributed/invested a sum of money during their working careers that will cover the expected payouts of defined benefits for their expected lifetime after retirement. Where systems like CalPERS used to assume an 8% return on their investments to grow their assets, they’re now seeing a 1.1% return (for 2011) and this means that CalPERS is having to go to the legislature and have their pension plan’s shortfalls augmented out of the general account for that year’s benefit payouts.
Illinois and California are realizing this, as are an increasing number of cities and counties all over the country. The defined benefit pension is mathematically unsustainable in the face of increased lifespans due to rapid advances in medical science, and in states like California and Illinois, where enough public employees have gamed the system to fatten their pension benefit stream just before they retired, it isn’t even an issue of lifespans. It is an issue that there are loopholes in the pension benefit computations that are allowing some people to game the system for huge rewards after retirement.
what are you saying?...you got yours from the govt so everyone should just shut up?...
It is MY business....
so any of the sanctimonious "don't tell me when to retire" people want to give up their fed/county/state pensions and live their lives ...fine...until then, its an obscene system and totally insane and totally unsustainable...period
this is the problem with democracy...eventually everyone votes to give themselves more and more and fewer and fewer are actually paying for it....
if the public just stops working and stops giving taxes, then the pensions of all the govt employees stops as well.......
About a decade ago, my state of Georgia moved to 401k plans for new state hires and the previous state employee pension plans weren’t that onerous to begin with. So GA is a right to work state and at least it has no unreasonable government unions to battle. Gov’t unions exist here but they don’t run things.
>>what are you saying?...you got yours from the govt so everyone should just shut up?..<<
The opposite. I got *NOTHING* from the govt — in fact I won’t even get the money *I* put into the National Ponzi Scheme back!
But don’t wag your finger at me and tell me I have to work until I die. If I am smart (I am), I can craft a plan wherein I can stop working, even WITHOUT the money *I* put in.
And if you are 55 or under you had better also craft a retirement plan that doesn’t include Social Security.
Reading is FUNdamental.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.