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Unions Levy Crushing Debt on State/Local Govts.

post #1 of 4
2/16/10 at 9:21pm
Thread Starter 
The only thing more corrupt than the government, the Unions. And we wonder why the far left, liberal states are in such bad shape.
Good GRIEF!



http://directorblue.blogspot.com/201...sionomics.html

Quote:
How's this for an investment?

You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment.

Or this:

You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment.

These are real world examples from New Jersey's crushing public sector union retirement plans paid for by the state's taxpayers. Republican Governor Chris Christie is demanding drastic actions to prevent New Jersey from falling off the precipice and into full-fledged bankruptcy.
Much more at link, enough to curl your hair.
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post #2 of 4
2/17/10 at 8:20am
Haven't read the link but I'd like to point out many if not most "PERS" entities (Public Employee Retirement System) invest heavily in the stock market. They hire "asset managers" from mega financial firms such as Deutsche Bank, etc. to make most of the investment choices. I know this because my best friend worked in a large asset managment department (several floors) of a financial giant and so many clients were PERS entities from different states, even far away ones. (meaning far from New York)
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post #3 of 4
2/17/10 at 8:49am
Out of curiosity I Googled

PERS local union

and it seems many unions have a website ending in .org but some end in .gov

Just a small thing I guess but shouldn't they all be .org? They're not the government!

For example, 2 of the largest California pensions are named California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS), but CalPERS's website ends in .gov
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post #4 of 4
2/17/10 at 4:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
How's this for an investment?

You pay a total of $124,000 into your pension plan and, upon retiring at age 49, you receive $3.3 million in pension payments and $500,000 in health care benefits. You receive $3.8 million in total on a $124,000 investment.

Or this:

You pay a total of $62,000 towards a pension plan and absolutely nothing for health care (medical, dental and vision coverage) over your working career. Upon retirement, you are paid $1.4 million in pension and $215,000 in health care benefits. You receive $1.6 million on a $62,000 investment.

These are real world examples from New Jersey's crushing public sector union retirement plans paid for by the state's taxpayers. Republican Governor Chris Christie is demanding drastic actions to prevent New Jersey from falling off the precipice and into full-fledged bankruptcy.
1) These numbers are completely unsourced, so I don't know if they represent averages, the worst possible case, or for that matter if they're even true at all. Considering the blog's content, my suspicion is they're cherry-picked examples. For example, if you retire at 49, you'll live ~30 years on average. $3.3 Million in pension would mean $110K/yr in pension. That's sure as heck not your average teacher or petty bureaucrat.

2) Run the numbers on military pensions. I'd bet they have an even poorer ratio of $ paid in to benefits received.
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