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Pensions are going to destroy this country

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout: Debate & Discussion' started by rockbox, Nov 12, 2010.

  1. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    I have to admit the pension topic is my hot button issue. For me, the math never added up and it was going to eventually fall like a deck of cards. I blame pensions as the number one reason the car companies needed a government bailout. But who is going to bail the state and city governments out?

    http://redtape.msnbc.com/2010/11/in...ear-chicago-a-parks-commissioner-q.html#posts

     
  2. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    Here's another article about the half trillion dollar shortfall in just teacher pensions.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20101112/us_time/08599203070800

     
  3. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    We need to do whatever it takes to pay these pensions.

    It's wrong to promise somebody something as part of their compensation for hard work, and then yank it out from underneath them when times are tight.
     
  4. thumbs

    thumbs Contributing Member

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    Agree. A contract is a contract. The same holds true for eminent domain when the redistribution is not for a road or bridge but as a reward to a commercial enterprise that contributes a greater tax revenue.

    If we change the laws regarding pensions, social security, double dipping, etc., then we have to make the changes effective far enough into the future that no current contracts (social security is a contract of sorts) are affected.
     
  5. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    Who is going to pay them when the pension funds run out of money. The government(tax payers)? Is the government responsible for every bad contract written?
     
  6. rrj_gamz

    rrj_gamz Contributing Member

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    ^Exactly, that's what's wrong with this...touch tiddies that the pension isn't there...that's like saying I expect to have Social Security as my main way of surviving when I grow old...BS, I have to save and take it upon myself...

    Companies do this all the time...although a company may "grandfather" some long tenured employees as it is a contract, but the newer ones have to fend for themselves via 401K...but this is a HUGE liability and should be done away with...

    I've only worked at one company in my careeer that had one, my previous one and they were just about to do away with pensions...they have a huge amount of debt with older assets...i always wondered why there was so much debt, but this makes sense now...govt. jobs are grazy trains...

    Great read...
     
  7. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    OMG half a trillion!!!!!!!! The fate of the nation and perhaps all Western Civ is doomed. What we spend in Iraq/Afghanistn in about a year. About 25$% of the potential tax revenue we transferred to the mainly top 2% with the Bush tax cuts. Less than the $700 billion the GOP is fighting so hard to keep giving back to the top 2% in the next ten years.

    Why is it always such a supposded emergency requiring give backs when the money is to go to ordinary working folks.

    Rockbox, another elitist or another ordinary guy duped by the right wing media. Oh well.
     
  8. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    Half a trillion is just the underfunded portion of teachers alone. The total underfunded for the states are estimated to be as much as 4.3 trillion dollars and growing.
     
  9. rockbox

    rockbox Around before clutchcity.com

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    I guess if being able to do basic math and accounting makes me an elitist, then so be it.
     
  10. Invisible Fan

    Invisible Fan Contributing Member

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    I think it should be renegotiated but let's get things straight here...

    Civil servants agreed to less money on the private marketplace for their skills because of these promises.

    They weren't seen as gravy trains until we lost 7 million jobs and the credit bubble burst. It just highlighted the situation that middle class income hasn't grown in the last 12 years to match the spending we made in the 2000s.
     
  11. Major

    Major Member

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    It's funny to see the extreme left now try to adopt the same basic tactics of the far right (accusing people of elitism, etc).

    The simple fact is that any pension plan that is a defined benefit plan is destined to fail because they use unrealistic income projections to make them work. As you said, basic math tells us this. Anyone that wants to deny this and just pretend they are sound is basically no different than the tea partiers who have no rational basis for their positions.
     
  12. glynch

    glynch Contributing Member

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    Non responsive. No need to even do basic math. Why is it more important to give .7 trillion to the upper 2% in the next 10 years per the continuation of the tax break to the top 2% than to fund the pensions millions of folks have been promised for all their working lives.

    pwned.
     
  13. bobrek

    bobrek Politics belong in the D & D

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    Why should the government be responsible for funding pensions for private companies?
     
  14. juicystream

    juicystream Contributing Member

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    Civil servants often don't take less money. My mother keeps trying to get me to take a base job. They pay a higher wage, with better insurance, a retirement plan(which I'll have next year, so no longer a difference), and they will pay for my masters degree.

    It really depends on what you do and where you are.
     
  15. Major

    Major Member

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    This is a nonsequitor. The pensions are mostly owed by state and local governments. Federal tax rates have little or nothing to do with what states and local governments can afford.

    Math is important. If you promise me an 8% return while you're not capable of generating that, then you have a problem to deal with. If you pretend you don't have a problem to deal with, then you're simply lying to yourself.
     
  16. GladiatoRowdy

    GladiatoRowdy Contributing Member

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    I took a 50% pay cut moving from the private sector to a state job.
     
  17. juicystream

    juicystream Contributing Member

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    Like I said. It depends on what you do and where you are. And of course the other factors of job security and workload have to be taken into account.
     
  18. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    It isn't about saving or not saving, especially in the case of teachers. Many of these people accepted pay that was less than what their services were worth based on the fact that they would have a good retirement plan. It's about giving what you owe.

    I find it hard to believe that people think it's OK to pay someone less than what they deserve based on future compensation, and then just take away that future compensation.

    It isn't the workers fault if someone else doesn't live up to their agreement. The fault lies entirely with the people who break the agreement.
     
  19. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Contributing Member

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    Contracts are broken all the time. It's only a promise.


    That's the problem when you agree to defer receiving payments. The promise is only as good as the promisor's solvency.
     
  20. FranchiseBlade

    FranchiseBlade Contributing Member
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    It isn't ok to break a contract or a promise.
     

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