The real threat to pensions.
 

The following article highlights the shenanigans of Wall Street and its front men re pension funds.

http://america.aljazeera.com/opinion...ioncrisis.html

Yep, it's all BS.

Dave

what do we do about public pensions?

the payouts are extraordinary and unreasonable?????

You can cherry pick a few examples that are, but for the most part they are quite modest. My own, from the State of Florida is $2100 a month after 31 years of service. The average in 2011 was about $18,000 a year. What's extravagant about that?

http://www.flaflcio.org/sites/defaul...y%20Primer.pdf

However private pensions have been hammered so much in the past 30 years that the public ones are starting to appear overly generous by comparison.

What private pensions?

Dave

I understand this argument from the point of view of the tax payer but I find it odd no one is upset that normal pensions, like say a UAW pension for an autoworker, are as rare as the dodo bird. America would be better off if people got upset about why there are hardly any pensions left period instead of trying to going after the few who still get them.

I have come to agree with you on this.

I believe the amplified noise about the ones cherry picked has clouded public
opinion.

Exactly.

Private corporations have taken the "F" out of workers pensions.

Now there ain't no "F" in workers pensions.

It is sort of like watching three or four houses on your block being consumed by fire, but being pissed off at the one guy left on the street that still has home owners insurance.
Bad simile but it kills me when all the debt crisis people and small government people go around trying to stamp on the last oxygen tube still functioning in an abandoned ICU ward.

excess is excess

it's two different subjects

you can't marry the two and avoid the îssue, which you just did ;)

show me examples of excess and tell me why you are upset.


Sadly, but I feel I may be right but hope I am wrong, Americans who somehow are able to secure public employment, either through nepotism, merit, or sheer luck, may be the ones who are the most fortunate at the end of their lives than most other Americans will be in the future. So in a Machivellian sense America public employment might be one of the few good options for a nice golden age.

I mean that is how it is in the Third World.

Ending public pensions would just be another step on the downward spiral.
I have a feeling the stock market and the 401ks tied to it are not really a big benefit to the majority of the 99 percent. And of course there could always be a crash.

I have a feeling that eventually single payer will be a necessity because no one will be able to pay for anything other than food and maybe instead of buying new homes us old people will have to just pass on our homes to our children where there extended families will all move in. New home ownership is already on the decline for millenials.

Oh lets worry about public pensions lol.

Well if you study the spending bill the GOP just ran up the flagpole you had damn well worry about your defined benefit pension. Congress will let all those mis-managed companies whose pension plans ares under funded cut back on the payout they had promised.

The GOP has people who have no pensions angry at those who do.......and voting for the bastards so they can help eliminate what's left. Look into the bill that congress is fighting over as we speak. Does anyone have any information regarding that?

Dave

From my personal experiences with Pensions 401K's Annuities Life Insurance Long Term Care.

Is in a nut shell, the ones who paid their bills saved had planned for the future granted were of a different generation then me. So had a old school pension payout. Fared no better then the others who robbed Peter to Pay Paul, had no savings or retirement other then SS. When it comes to entering long term care. The ones without assets were easy. The ones with assets a whole other mess that keeps on giving/taking.

The 401K type and Annuities investment retirements are all geared to make money for the handlers. Figure 1-3% on the total investment amount yearly. The adviser who will show you what the actual fee's charged honestly are like finding a needle in a haystack. I'm still not real sure my guy is straight with me.

My pension was lost because of the company filing bankruptcy just to free themselves of ""legacy costs"". This was after big bonuses paid out to officers of the company. Then the tax payers picked it up and are paying it now.

Thanks!:D










Barney

What about double dipping? Did that happen in private pensions?

I happen to know someone on the Ohio state pension program. He said they told him that they have a gaggle of lawyers just to keep the politicians' hands off the money.

Look what they did to Social Security.

Pete

Most of the double, and triple dippers I have known were arch Republicans.

When I was in the service you wouldn't believe how many people I knew that retired from the Military on one day and went right back to work on base at a gummint job the next day. A lot of them worked it out so that they went back to the same desk, doing the same job only this time instead of as a GI, they were now a GS something.

Then there was my old boss at the State of Florida.

Republican all the way.

Enlisted in the Navy at 18, and left for boot camp the day after he graduated from High School.

Did 22 years in the Navy, retired with a nice pension at age 40, then went to work for the State of Florida for another 22 years, then at age 62 he retired and started drawing a 22 year pension from the state plus Social Security.

I just looked him up on the net and he's still alive.

84 years old and been drawing three government checks for the last 22 years just for breathing.

That's the way you do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAD6Obi7Cag

That's amazing!

Pete

Yep, I know about a half dozen of them. I know one that retired from the Navy and has been working for the Oregon Air National Guard since 2002. I know another who retired from the Navy after 24 years, went to work for the State of Virginia (DOT) and left after only five years, after suing them for a disability check (Sciatica). More than one that retired from the Navy after 20+ years, gets a disability check AND currently works, full time, for the Federal government or some other full time job.

All Republicans.

Of course, they earned every penny and YOU didn't. I know this is true, they told me so.

Dave

There's a whole lot of them around here in Cleveland, and believe you me they're not righties. Nice try though.

Pete

Some of them went to prison here.

Here they are righties in left leaning unions. :D

New York/Long Island areas