Update – A great posting from Doug Ross where he outlines the disparity in government pensions:
[As a goverment emloyee], 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… New Jersey’s crushing public sector union retirement plans paid for by the state’s taxpayers.
Feb 9, 2010 – All Americans by now have become familiar with labor unions from watching the years of the UAW working with the Big 3 automakers in Detroit. Michael Barone adds his commentary about unionized goverment employees… It’s even worse than you think.
Public-sector unionism is a very different animal from private-sector unionism. It is not adversarial but collusive. Public-sector unions strive to elect their management, which in turn can extract money from taxpayers to increase wages and benefits — and can promise pensions that future taxpayers will have to fund.
The results are plain to see. States such as New York, New Jersey and California, where public-sector unions are strong, now face enormous budget deficits and pension liabilities. In such states, the public sector has become a parasite sucking the life out of the private-sector economy. Not surprisingly, Americans have been steadily migrating out of such states and into states like Texas, where public-sector unions are weak and taxes are much lower.
Jan 31, 2010 – The domestic enemies of the American people are not Democrats or Republicans. Instead, it is the ever-growing size of government (federal, state, county, city, etc.) with their endless supply of overpaid administrators. The layers of government employees with their rich benefit plans are the death-knell for our nation. Not only do these people not contribute to wealth creation, but their onerous benefits continue to obligate US citizens to fund pensions in a fashion that is simply not sustainable.
O’bama and company are planning another “stimulus” (they like calling it a “jobs bill”) that involves tax credits, unemployment benefits, health benefits, etc. The President continues to operate with the fallacious assumption that centralized planning in Washington is the most beneficent for the people. O’bama believes that all he has to do is deliver a speech on hiring, unlock the treasury, and jobs will be created. Unfortunately, he has established a terrible climate of uncertainty for businesses — both small and large. This uncertainty about the direction of the country cannot be overcome with his wanton plans for providing spending incentives.
If O’bama really wanted to get companies to start investing and hiring again, he would greatly reduce the government’s role in the economy. He would declare that the legislation on tax-and-trade energy, health care, and new income taxes dead on arrival. This would by far have the greatest impact at getting our nation back on the right track.
O’bama is not likely to be capable of this dramatic change in philosophy… I’d be willing to wager that his successor will move strongly in this direction.