Public pension plans in dreamland
It took all the major newspapers in Ohio to do an exposé on the golden nest egg pension plan for public employees. As the gap between rich and poor in America widens, the fourth estate isn’t even able to mount a credible look at what’s really going wrong- and it’s not the pension plans- it’s their choice of investment.
With billions invested in the Wall Street Casino, the State pension plans have been playing high-stakes poker with public tax dollars that were destined for the retirement plans for public servants. Those public servants did nothing wrong, they worked hard for their living- just like the GM workers- who’ve lost their Cadillac pension plans that set the bar for the public service sector.
Reality check people: the Wall Street Casino is still winning- and we’re still losing- and your politicians are all still sucking at the teat of these criminals.
Nothing will change until the bonuses, million-dollar-plus annual executive pay, derivatives markers- are all hauled in. Failure should not provide a jackpot.
The newspaper touches briefly on the issue- but fails to slam the hammer on the excesses of Wall Street:
Still, some change is inevitable. Thanks to market losses, skyrocketing health care costs and baby boomer retirees living longer, nobody thinks the current system is sustainable without changes. The market has rebounded some, but investment portfolios from the five pension systems lost a staggering $56.6 billion in 2008.
Of course, your Dayton Grassroots Daily Show has no problem calling out the crooks- and asking why the newspapers just don’t get it.
And since Greg will be out of town Monday through Thursday- I’m throwing open the doors, if anyone has ten whole minutes and can stop by the office, you can be a guest on the Dayton Grassroots Daily Show- just e-mail me.
Public pension plans with guaranteed risk removal via the taxpayers are just another victim of our economy gone mad. The question is, when will the taxpayers get mad enough to put the blame squarely where it belongs?
Something I’m not seeing in any of these public pension articles — the fact that public employees do not participate in Social Security (making the public employee pension more essential to the average public retiree than the private pension is to the average private employee).
@Siquomb- it’s in there- the part about them not paying into SS. However it only takes something like 7 quarters to vest in SS if I’m not mistaken.
40 quarters (10 years) to be eligible for retirement benefits. For disability benefits, it depends on how old you are. For example, if you become disabled at age 23, you need six quarters (1 1/2 years) in the 3 years before you become disabled. If you become disabled at age 31, you need 20 quarters (5 years).
See http://www.socialsecurity.gov/pubs/10072.html#number for all the details.