BlackTerrel
02-16-2010, 12:27 AM
http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=OTNkMTM5NzlmNzllOGYxNDgxZjI5YTViN2MwNWFiYTQ=
News item from Reuters on the Greek problem:
The poll also showed 67 percent of Germans did not want Germany and other EU states to give billions of euros in credit to Greece.
"If we start now, where do we stop?" Michael Fuchs, deputy head of [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel's conservatives in parliament, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
"I can't explain to people on unemployment benefit that they won't get a cent more but Greeks can draw a pension at 63."
In her first term, Merkel raised Germany's retirement age to 67 from 65 in an effort to rein in the deficit to meet EU goals.
I don't imagine too many people have trouble understanding why German workers, who can't draw their state pension till 67, are reluctant to bail out Greece so that Greek workers can go on retiring at 63.
The U.S.A.'s public sector — federal, state, and local — is to the private sector as Greece is to Germany. And then some: the gap that has opened up between the pay and (especially) the benefits for our public sector, as compared with those in the private sector, is far greater than a mere 67-63 difference in retirement ages. You want to talk retirement ages?
In California . . . a bipartisan bill that passed virtually without debate unleashed the odious "3 percent at 50" retirement plan in 1999. Under this plan, at age 50 many categories of public employees are eligible for 3 percent of their final year’s pay multiplied by the number of years they’ve worked. So if a police officer starts working at age 20, he can retire at 50 with 90 percent of his final salary until he dies, and then his spouse receives that money for the rest of her life. Even during the economic crisis, "3 percent at 50" and the forces behind it have only become more entrenched.
That's from a fine article on the February edition of Reason.com, subtitled "How public servants became our masters," detailing how, since the legitimizing of public-sector unions in the 1960s, we have moved to a two-class society:
The average private-sector worker, who enjoys a lower salary and far lower retirement benefits than New York or California government workers, will have to work longer, retire later, and pay more so that his public-employee neighbors can enjoy the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. The taxpayers will also have to deal with worsening public services, since there will be less money to pay for things that might actually benefit the public.
Welcome to the era of dwindling public benefits and services to the general population, while public debt escalates to feed the government-sector benefits behemoth. If you did not follow my oft-repeated advice to GET A GOVERNMENT JOB!, you will still be toiling away at age 75 to finance the Caribbean cruises of 55-year-old public-sector retirees. Thanks, suckers!
People who are supposed to serve the public have become a privileged elite that exploits political power for financial gain and special perks. Because of its political power, this interest group has rigged the game so there are few meaningful checks on its demands. Government employees now receive far higher pay, benefits, and pensions than the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector.
The Eurozone can at least expel the Greeks. There is nothing we can do with our public-sector masters other than to keep feeding them. It's the law!
News item from Reuters on the Greek problem:
The poll also showed 67 percent of Germans did not want Germany and other EU states to give billions of euros in credit to Greece.
"If we start now, where do we stop?" Michael Fuchs, deputy head of [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel's conservatives in parliament, told Welt am Sonntag newspaper.
"I can't explain to people on unemployment benefit that they won't get a cent more but Greeks can draw a pension at 63."
In her first term, Merkel raised Germany's retirement age to 67 from 65 in an effort to rein in the deficit to meet EU goals.
I don't imagine too many people have trouble understanding why German workers, who can't draw their state pension till 67, are reluctant to bail out Greece so that Greek workers can go on retiring at 63.
The U.S.A.'s public sector — federal, state, and local — is to the private sector as Greece is to Germany. And then some: the gap that has opened up between the pay and (especially) the benefits for our public sector, as compared with those in the private sector, is far greater than a mere 67-63 difference in retirement ages. You want to talk retirement ages?
In California . . . a bipartisan bill that passed virtually without debate unleashed the odious "3 percent at 50" retirement plan in 1999. Under this plan, at age 50 many categories of public employees are eligible for 3 percent of their final year’s pay multiplied by the number of years they’ve worked. So if a police officer starts working at age 20, he can retire at 50 with 90 percent of his final salary until he dies, and then his spouse receives that money for the rest of her life. Even during the economic crisis, "3 percent at 50" and the forces behind it have only become more entrenched.
That's from a fine article on the February edition of Reason.com, subtitled "How public servants became our masters," detailing how, since the legitimizing of public-sector unions in the 1960s, we have moved to a two-class society:
The average private-sector worker, who enjoys a lower salary and far lower retirement benefits than New York or California government workers, will have to work longer, retire later, and pay more so that his public-employee neighbors can enjoy the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed. The taxpayers will also have to deal with worsening public services, since there will be less money to pay for things that might actually benefit the public.
Welcome to the era of dwindling public benefits and services to the general population, while public debt escalates to feed the government-sector benefits behemoth. If you did not follow my oft-repeated advice to GET A GOVERNMENT JOB!, you will still be toiling away at age 75 to finance the Caribbean cruises of 55-year-old public-sector retirees. Thanks, suckers!
People who are supposed to serve the public have become a privileged elite that exploits political power for financial gain and special perks. Because of its political power, this interest group has rigged the game so there are few meaningful checks on its demands. Government employees now receive far higher pay, benefits, and pensions than the vast majority of Americans working in the private sector.
The Eurozone can at least expel the Greeks. There is nothing we can do with our public-sector masters other than to keep feeding them. It's the law!