$500 Billion Dollar Shortfall (Stanford: high school, university, DMV)

[RedJacket]

"Something has got to give," says Joe Nation, the director of a Stanford University graduate program that is reporting today that the cumulative shortfall from California's three giant pension funds alone is somewhere around $500 billion.
Not only is that considerably more than the state is currently projecting, but it's almost six times the state's entire general fund budget. In other words, it would take California six years -- with no spending on education, public safety, health care or anything else -- to fill the gap."




What a mess. And not only in CA.

[native56]

And the politicians fiddle.

Throw the bums out. The state cannot survive another 10 year of a left wing super majority.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by native56

The state cannot survive another 10 year of a left wing super majority.

Why do the "bad guys" keep getting elected?

[steelstress]

What? You mean shutting down the DMV once a month isn't helping?

[sonarrat]

Once again, what it comes down to is toothless and inept government oversight, and once again, the panacea is going to be a multi-trillion dollar bailout of the government's own sloppy work, this time in the form of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.

[bhcompy]

My question is after pretty much universally being sunset in private business, why is the much more expensive to administer pension still the standard for every public job? They really need to end this and move to something more affordable for new hires, like the defined contribution programs that are the private industry standard.

Pensions are great and everyone would like one, but everyone wants to win the lotto, too. It's just not feasible anymore, especially when the taxpayers pick up the tab.

[Ultrarunner]

It seems kind of inevitable... people that I went to High School with are getting as much as 180k yearly pensions... I never thought it the system would have lasted this long.

I work in the private sector and management quickly embraced Defined Contributions to replace Defined Benefit... have not had either since 2005... employer no longer contributes... period.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by bhcompy

My question is after pretty much universally being sunset in private business, why is the much more expensive to administer pension still the standard for every public job? They really need to end this and move to something more affordable for new hires, like the defined contribution programs that are the private industry standard.

Pensions are great and everyone would like one, but everyone wants to win the lotto, too. It's just not feasible anymore, especially when the taxpayers pick up the tab.

The unions make it nearly impossible to change anything. At least in the private sector, the parasites can bleed their hosts too much and kill them so they have to be a least a little careful about overreaching. But in government, they'll kick and scream and demand the moon (and get it) because the government can just extract more money from taxpayers or cut some service to cover the tab.

[RedJacket]

Originally Posted by steelstress

What? You mean shutting down the DMV once a month isn't helping?

That's probably not figured in. If it were, the shortfall would be gone. Completely.