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Many children grow up wanting to be a government employees and often know it from a very early age. They even go to college and study to become one. They are called teachers and there are about 2.8 million of them in K-12 education and it is the competition for and retention of the best of them that has created much of the public employee benefits that exist.
Now you'll really love this, We get monthly reimbursement in our pension check for our Part B premium.
So there you go. No apologies! No mea culpas! We worked long, hard and extremely productively for our benefits. We also paid a lot in premiums during our working years.
Congratulations! No one should ever have to apologize to someone who has 'pension envy'. May you and your wife live long and happy.
So some dolt actually believes that free health care means you do not pay deductibles or co-pays. The guy proves my point. They spout nonsense and parrot back what some politician says without knowing what they are talking about.
Not wanting to pick a fight but you said government employees so how the heck did I know you were not including teachers? At the local and state level they are the largest block of government employees and their salaries and benefits are often the biggest budget category. So it hard to discuss this topic without teachers being at the core of the discussion. Teachers and the competition for top flight teachers is usually the biggest driver of local government benefits. Along with that add in police and fire fighters but there numbers are no where as great. One could say that at the local government level other workers feed off the benefit of teachers. Police and Firefighters will often have different pension and benefit plans as they have different career length expectations.
Whats funny is there are 50 states with plans usually multiple plans and tons of local plans. We all get statements each year and can easily find out how much is in our trust fund and how long it will last at what ROI etc. I hope they don't think they are alarming folks who are familiar with the status of their personal pension program. Heck I live on the East Coast and I know how much is or was in Calipers a few months ago and 236 billion is a chunk of change and it is well managed. Challenged but well managed. Some state pension funds are 100% funded and others in the 90's so those folks should be concerned about what? So much of the data is based on the end of the 2009 fiscal year reports when they hit rock bottom. For the most part that was the end of June. They also give a calendar year report ending December 31 in most places. So am I living based on my investment portfolio of March 2009 or April 6 2013?
To expand - Just within CalPERS, there are more than 2,000 public agency plans that currently range in funding from about 50 percent to greater than 100 percent funded (Source: PERSpective Online Newsletter, Spring 2013 edition).
Then there's CalSTRS.
Then there's other pension plans that aren't part of PERS or STRS.
Every single one of those plans have different funding, contracts, and benefits.
To expand - Just within CalPERS, there are more than 2,000 public agency plans that currently range in funding from about 50 percent to greater than 100 percent funded (Source: PERSpective Online Newsletter, Spring 2013 edition).
Then there's CalSTRS.
Then there's other pension plans that aren't part of PERS or STRS.
Every single one of those plans have different funding, contracts, and benefits.
You are certainly more familiar with CalSTRS but from what I know it is easier to have confidence in Calipers
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