The Pension Crisis

[Bitware]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/06/15/191619059/illinois-pension-crisis-this-is-what-rock-bottom-looks-like

[kokojie]

pension is an evil evil system.

[FoBoT]

so riddle me this batman

if    {   'the poor' people of Brazil are rioting over a 9 cent bus fare increase  }

 will

             {  'the pensioners' of USA riot over haircuts to their pensions?  }


the first group is much younger than the second, i believe


do old people have a better way to protest than rioting?

[progolferJP]

The pension crisis is bull.. I hate these baby boomers..

[KornShell]

This thread began with a look at the inability of Illinois to pay the pensions of its civil employees.  Read "PLUNDER!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives And Bankrupting The Nation" by Steven Greenhut (The Forum Press; Santa Ana, CA,; 2009).  Then you will understand why I have no sympathy for these folks.

But Baby Boomers on Social Security don't deserve anyone's hatred.  They were forced to participate in a Ponzi scheme, and now they want to be paid back what was taken from them.  Social Security is one of FDR's enduring legacies, and it should be ended.  It can be done gracefully; there's no need for anger and animosity.

[hawkeye]

This thread began with a look at the inability of Illinois to pay the pensions of its civil employees.  Read "PLUNDER!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives And Bankrupting The Nation" by Steven Greenhut (The Forum Press; Santa Ana, CA,; 2009).  Then you will understand why I have no sympathy for these folks.

But Baby Boomers on Social Security don't deserve anyone's hatred.  They were forced to participate in a Ponzi scheme, and now they want to be paid back what was taken from them.  Social Security is one of FDR's enduring legacies, and it should be ended.  It can be done gracefully; there's no need for anger and animosity.

What exactly does "ending it gracefully" entail? 

[legitnick]

I agree, pension system is absolute bullshit.

[Spendulus]

I agree, pension system is absolute bullshit.

Good website is pensiontsunami.com

[KornShell]

This thread began with a look at the inability of Illinois to pay the pensions of its civil employees.  Read "PLUNDER!: How Public Employee Unions Are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives And Bankrupting The Nation" by Steven Greenhut (The Forum Press; Santa Ana, CA,; 2009).  Then you will understand why I have no sympathy for these folks.

But Baby Boomers on Social Security don't deserve anyone's hatred.  They were forced to participate in a Ponzi scheme, and now they want to be paid back what was taken from them.  Social Security is one of FDR's enduring legacies, and it should be ended.  It can be done gracefully; there's no need for anger and animosity.

What exactly does "ending it gracefully" entail? 

Here's one possible solution to ending Social Security: Stop further enrollments immediately. For those folks not yet collecting benefits, pay them back their "contributions" in full, at prevailing interest rates. For those already collecting benefits, continue the payments. They will eventually all die off, and the system will wither away.  How to pay for this? One way would be to stop getting involved in unwinnable wars overseas. Another would be to close some unnecessary federal bureaucracies, such as the DOE and the EPA, just to name two.

[worldinacoin]

Pension scheme used to be good, the workers worked their lives for it.   It is the politicians who decided to abuse the pension funds and cause the problems that we have today.

[Spendulus]

Pension scheme used to be good, the workers worked their lives for it.   It is the politicians who decided to abuse the pension funds and cause the problems that we have today.

No pension scheme could withstand the simultaneous loss of real value in a nation's currency while government policy kept interest rates near zero.   Most pension funds have been capitalized to be solvent with an expected rate of return of something like 8%.

Well, 8% ain't gonna happen.

Now, I think the problem is that this is very easy to understand, and all those people out there expecting to get pensions in a few years or a decade or two refuse to see it or understand it.  Granted, they are "locked into a system".  Typically, within the employment benefits package the employee is only given certain options.

Those restrictions date from another time and place in their risk assessment.  Now rather than protect they injure.