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Location: "Silicon Valley" (part of San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
4,375 posts, read 4,070,027 times
Reputation: 2158
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tikkasf
It might behoove you to put less time & effort into these postings on this subject and instead spend the time working on strategies to improve your income.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic of the thread. What's your point, you earned your six figure salary and therefore all the state workers earned theirs in the free market? They work for the government, not private industry. Their salary was extorted by a union, not earned in the free market. It wouldnt be an issue if the state was having no difficulty paying for other things, but that isn't the situation we're in, is it, sir?
Too bad your friends working for the state arent serving their state with honor, and are more concerned about extorting a high salary from the state than they are with actually serving it for the salary and pension the state can afford.
Its so rediculous, these state salaries and these constitutional amendments tying up the budget, many of which were advanced and promoted by government servant unions.
I'm not sure what this has to do with the topic of the thread. What's your point, you earned your six figure salary and therefore all the state workers earned theirs in the free market? They work for the government, not private industry. Their salary was extorted by a union, not earned in the free market. It wouldnt be an issue if the state was having no difficulty paying for other things, but that isn't the situation we're in, is it, sir?
Too bad your friends working for the state arent serving their state with honor, and are more concerned about extorting a high salary from the state than they are with actually serving it for the salary and pension the state can afford.
Its so rediculous, these state salaries and these constitutional amendments tying up the budget, many of which were advanced and promoted by government servant unions.
We can do better.
Why are you so jealous of their salaries? Can't you be happy for them as a former public servant? They need that high pay in robber baron valley
Why are you so jealous of their salaries? Can't you be happy for them as a former public servant? They need that high pay in robber baron valley
My opinion and I don't think I am the only member of the forum who has this opinion, is the poster you are referring to, his current personal situation has led him to be a bit obsessed with the issue.
I am not stating a worthy discussion can not be had on the issue on this forum and there has been at this one discussion here on this issue in the past that I am aware of
The Legislature/State made 2 errors in judgment back during the DotCom Boom. One was increasing the pension calculation % formula for public safety employees & making it retroactive and the other, was suspending payments to CalPers for a period of time. I believe the thinking was at the time, the booming Nasdaq would boost CALPERS to the point of making up for the payments not being made.
A 3rd mistake made, several years later, was CALPERS was not doing enough due diligence, before buying some of what Wall St was peddling and that resulted in considerable loses during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Since then, the fund has recovered nicely. I believe current value of the fund is approx. $295 billion
The Legislature, with some prodding from the Governor, have made changes to the pension system to rein what has become to be seen as excesses resulting from what was enacted during the DotCom Boom.
It also should be noted, generally, public school teachers & public safety are not in Social Security.
The poster thinks public employees should be in a 401K system. Might be worthy of discussion...but, that is likely only a feasible option for new hires.
My opinion and I don't think I am the only member of the forum who has this opinion, is the poster you are referring to, his current personal situation has led him to be a bit obsessed with the issue.
I am not stating a worthy discussion can not be had on the issue on this forum and there has been at this one discussion here on this issue in the past that I am aware of
The Legislature/State made 2 errors in judgment back during the DotCom Boom. One was increasing the pension calculation % formula for public safety employees & making it retroactive and the other, was suspending payments to CalPers for a period of time. I believe the thinking was at the time, the booming Nasdaq would boost CALPERS to the point of making up for the payments not being made.
A 3rd mistake made, several years later, was CALPERS was not doing enough due diligence, before buying some of what Wall St was peddling and that resulted in considerable loses during the financial crisis of 2008-2009. Since then, the fund has recovered nicely. I believe current value of the fund is approx. $295 billion
The Legislature, with some prodding from the Governor, have made changes to the pension system to rein what has become to be seen as excesses resulting from what was enacted during the DotCom Boom.
It also should be noted, generally, public school teachers & public safety are not in Social Security.
The poster thinks public employees should be in a 401K system. Might be worthy of discussion...but, that is likely only a feasible option for new hires.
Imagine if all State and Fed workers and politicians were in a 401k plan unless they wished to invest more of their own money and on Medicare unless they spent more from their pockets. You note they get far better of both, while the people they represent do not......................
Location: "Silicon Valley" (part of San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
4,375 posts, read 4,070,027 times
Reputation: 2158
Quote:
Originally Posted by expatCA
Imagine if all State and Fed workers and politicians were in a 401k plan unless they wished to invest more of their own money and on Medicare unless they spent more from their pockets. You note they get far better of both, while the people they represent do not......................
Indeed. You are exactly correct, and unlike the guy to whom you were replying, you are actually staying on the topic. Yes, I have a number of problems in my life, and I'm working on it. Despite my problems, I am fiscally conservative and can afford to pay rent (to the property owner, not my roommate who happens to be my father). To use my problems to defend overpaid state workers is called an ad homenim fallacy. It has nothing to do with the fact that the State is paying far too much and getting far too little for the money.
The state's infrastructure is in a poor state. We need to work on it. We have "CalTrans" which is supposed to be working on it. They are paid a ridiculous compensation package to supposedly work on it. One that is causing financial problems in the State.
Yet the roads are not fixed. We have people who are supposed to be serving their State instead getting drunk on taxpayer dollars.
That awesome Republican I mentioned earlier, Joel Anderson, wrote another article on his web site. He talked about how CalTrans caused a huge traffic jam because they failed to notify other government servants that they were going to work on the road on that particular day. They also failed to actually get the concrete they needed before starting work, so they left a hole in the highway while waiting for it; it took them 11.5 hours to do what was supposed to be a nine hour job. No one at CalTrans lost their job or got a reduction in pay as a result. He wrote about many other problems:
Huge salaries for low skills. Huge pensions, defined benefit pensions that we can't afford. No accountability.
This is part of why I often vote for Republicans on the local and State level. In theory, I prefer liberal solutions, but I'm a moderate, so I will go with right wing solutions if it solves the problem.
50% of our state budget is mandated by our Constitution to go to "education". Yet, the best performing public schools are the ones in rich neighborhoods, which is the opposite of how it should be; the poorest neighborhoods need the best public schools. The best schools are in rich neighborhoods because the schools are funded by local property tax. So what is that 50% of the State budget doing? Enriching overpaid government servants in administrative roles who don't even teach? Clearly, the Republicans have a better idea for this: give people vouchers to send their kids to private schools.
The correct liberal way to do it, in theory, would be that the state operates all public schools, and the property taxes from all regions are collected together, and the schools in the poorest areas would get the most funding. In practice, though, the union for government servants whose role is teaching -- and again it is stupid that government servants would have a union -- would never agree to that. The Republicans have a good idea, and I think we should try it. Of course that union will resist that good idea as well.
We're paying a FORMER city manager 300k per year in his retirement? The Commander in Chief only makes 400k! How can it be right that you make 80% of the salary of the President of the United States, and you are paid this amount to not perform any public service at all?
That's paid by CalPERS, a state agency.
Then you have other ridiculous things, state personnel who make more than the President. No government servant should ever make a higher salary than the President of the United States. I believe there is actually a law to that effect for federal employees. We should have a similar law in California.
expatca is clearly correct that we should have "defined contribution" pensions, not "defined benefit". In other words the State would invest a defined -- and low -- amount into the stock market, and the personnel could collect it after age 65. Just like a 401k.
Because that's what most Americans in private industry get now, a 401k rather than a pension. It's a lot cheaper for the employer and the employee still gets a steady income.
Last edited by neutrino78x; 07-23-2016 at 01:46 PM..
California has among the highest of all those I mentioned above compared to most parts of the country or world maybe with the exception of certain European countries. Though I wonder where does all the money go? How come our roads, transportation infrastructure, and public facilties are still in such awful shape compared to many other states and countries?
Taxes are very high and there are just more and more of them coming, not to mention "fees" which are "tax" that falls in the loophole requiring public approval. Fines including so much costs and fees that end up tripling and quadruping the cost depending on the location. But where do they all go? The schools are a mess, the freeways and streets are crumbling and trashed, mass transit poorly laid out, not user friendly, and always running into issues. The CAHSR project seems to be just a dream that will never be completed.
I visited states where there are alot of rain and even snow and even in those harsh circumstances they appear to keep their roads clean and smooth I wonder why?
Location: "Silicon Valley" (part of San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA)
4,375 posts, read 4,070,027 times
Reputation: 2158
Quote:
Originally Posted by Perma Bear
Bet you wouldn't last one week at the postal service OR working as a county trash collector.
I lasted four years in the United States Navy in a role that is considered especially dangerous and stressful by the Navy, and I was promoted to E-4 in that time. User reported and placed on ignore list.
I read some of your posts from 2013, and even then you were harping about public employees and bragging about how well you get by on $10 an hour by renting a room. Now at 38, you earn $12 an hour and you are still renting a room. Are you really where you want to be in life? Don't you ever wonder what it must be like to be one of those awful caltrans employees who can rent a real apartment and will be able to retire with enough to make ends meet?
It seems to me like you are hating what you don't have, perhaps because you feel it's out of reach, but there are lots of public sector jobs and the nice thing about all of them is that 99% of them pay more than $12 an hour and will provide a pension larger than the $1700 SS payment you will likely have to live on.
I can't tell you what to do, but it's something you might think about...if there was a high paying private sector job out there I would guess you would have found it by now.
You are probably wasting your time 2S. I already tried posting a response, using different wording, that made a similar point and suggestion. At some point, one begins to conclude that it is not worth the effort
Sorry if you felt attacked, that was not my intention, but as a retired public sector employee I am insulted and offended by your constant haranguing about unions
I feel the same way. I was in manufacturing.....and yes there was manufacturing in the Bay Area at one time....the place I was working at employed up to 2,000 employees in the East Bay. (was not NUMI} Everybody got laid off in the late 1980s.....only the top executives were relocated to positions on the East Coast. I just keep applying for jobs.....basically at any employer that was hiring for a position that I felt I had a chance of being considered for. I ended up being hired by the State. The offered starting salary was approx. 15% less then my manufacturing job, no OT like there was abundance of in manufacturing, health benefits were similar to what I had in manufacturing, they did offer a decent pension plan though. After I was hired, I was told I was one of two applicants hired, out of approx. 100 applicants. Medical issue pushed me last year into a earlier then planned retirement
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Last edited by Poncho_NM; 07-23-2016 at 09:56 PM..
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