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If we didn't already have a mortgage interest deduction, few would be advocating for the introduction of one. Since it's already long been in place however, it would be quite difficult to unwind with any fairness.
What makes sense to me is that every American worker has a floating pension fund that their employer, whether private industry or government, must pay into, along with contributions from the worker. When they change jobs, their floating pension floats on to their new job with them. At some given age -- let's match it to the age our senators and members of the House get their pensions -- the employer can then begin to withdraw some planned amount from their floating pension on a recurring basis.
What makes sense to me is that every American worker has a floating pension fund that their employer, whether private industry or government, must pay into, along with contributions from the worker. When they change jobs, their floating pension floats on to their new job with them. At some given age -- let's match it to the age our senators and members of the House get their pensions -- the employer can then begin to withdraw some planned amount from their floating pension on a recurring basis.
What you described is very close to how Social Security works. Not identical, but extremely close.
With the carnage done by the Great Recession via all that investment risk dumped onto individuals in the demise of employment-based pensions, there were various proposals to create mandatory "Social Security Plus" accounts that would have been a whole lot safer for people. Some would have been invested in non-marketable government-backed securities. Hard to get any safer than that. But guess who was unalterably opposed to any such notions.
Retired public sector employees should receive pensions where the money comes from deductions from currently working public sector employees.
You realize that most government pensions are self-financed and self-supporting?
Where things got into the weeds was when Governors and Legislatures started to "borrow" money from those pension funds with the promise they'd be paid back "later". Same as happened to Social Security fifty years ago. And the various highway funds.
"Later" is now and that money is coming from general revenue.
Gov. O'Malley took the Maryland State Retirement System from being 105% funded as far out as could be calculated down to 58% in seven years. During that time teacher, no one else's, contribution went up from 5% to 7%. But guess what, that extra 2% went to the General Fund and not the Retirement System.
Social Security invests its accumulated cash surpluses in US Treasury securities. This is a matter of fiduciary responsibility. These surpluses were brought into being by the 1983 amendments which were designed to build up a cushion against the eventual pressures of baby-boomer retirements. There is nothing unusual or frightening in any of this.
In the past, generous government pensions and benefits were supposed to make up for the fact that government pay was well below private sector pay. Today, government employees cash in on all three levels: "Federal workers’ pay and benefits were 78 percent higher than private employees..." Study: Government Workers Make 78 Percent More Than Private Sector - Washington Free Beacon.
The U.S. working class, whose prosperity, pay and benefits have been eroding for decades, simply cannot afford to pay the more than $5 trillion bill for pensions promised to government employees. Unfortunately, they also cannot afford to pay the Social Security & Medicare benefits promised to the Baby Boom, estimated to cost another $19 trillion. Forbes Welcome
I guess dollar devaluation and bottomless credit debt will continue to accrue, as politicians continue with every accounting slight-of-hand to push the day of reckoning onwards.
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