Too poor to retire and too young to die (supplement, milk, drug)
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Why would someone who paid federal taxes for 42 years, suddenly not be eligible for a voice in how federal monies are spent when at retirement they happen to not be paying federal taxes?
It makes no sense. A moral basis for not lending a voice to those who have paid federal taxes for around 42 years? no.
It's a minor point, relative to points others have made on this thread, but the average defined benefit pension is small. For example, a 2012 article shows that public pensions (and many public employees are not covered by Social Security) averaged less than $24000 per year.
So while having DB pensions is better than not having them, it's important, when comparing workers' retirement incomes of the past versus those of today, not to have a mistaken impression about how rich the DB pensions were (and are).
That is difficult to believe, ACWhite, when every public employee I've ever heard of has at least double that amount and often beyond double.
I think the figures must or might be skewed by figuring in those who worked a much less amount of time with those who worked many more years, or another type of skewing of the figures.
Last edited by matisse12; 02-01-2016 at 05:48 PM..
That is difficult to believe, ACWhite, when every public employee I've ever heard of has at least double that amount and often beyond double.
I think the figures must or might be skewed by figuring in those who worked a much less amount of time with those who worked many more years, or another type of skewing of the figures.
My guess is that you don't actually know many public employees personally. You're just going by what anti-public employee propagandists spread around about a handful of outliers.
I'm retiring in 2 months with a public employee pension after 29 years in public service. It's significantly more than the $24k that ACWhite cited, but then I make significantly more in salary than most public employees who generally make between $35k and $60k. That $24k probably represents between 40 and 60% of the employee's annual pay over a set period of several year and depends upon how long the employee worked in public service.
Location: Living near our Nation's Capitol since 2010
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My older sis and I were having a discussion today about debt. We were raised by Depression era parents who saw debt as pure evil. They taught us to "save up" for things we wanted, even as kids. I am eternally grateful to them for those lessons. I still "save up" if I want something big. I recently bought a new car (last one was 14 years old and 300K miles) and I paid cash for the new one. But, I saved for it for 8 years.
I have friends my age (50s) who have absolutely zero in savings, and they have a mountain of debt. They take vacations, have parties, wear nice clothing, have great houses, appliances and cars. How will they ever retire? They simply don't worry about it.
Please don't misunderstand...I do feel terrible for those who have had serious illness, children with mental challenges, loss of jobs, other catrastophies. But many others bring on their own financial ruin.
I have a friend who worked only 10 years as a public school teacher, and many of those years, he was not even working full-time in the public schools, but was instead a part-time employee.
He receives $1000 per month pension from the public school system. Compare that with the $1278 per month I receive from Social Security after working 38 years.
Your cited statistics, Linda_d, do not really change the reality. And as you state in your last sentence, it depends how long the employee worked in public service which was my point......all of the people who worked a shortened time as a public employee are averaged in with long-term employees like yourself which skews the monetary figures downward in studies/reports.
I do not fall for anti-public employee propagandists at all.
There is no point in answering the question. Our law is "one man, one vote". You seem to agree with the hypocrisy I pointed out where I get tired of reading Fox News/Trump rants from people complaining about how "their tax money" is being spent when, from writing style, it's pretty likely they pay little or no taxes. Mouth-breathers of the world, unite. Bring on President Trump. I own the movie Idiocracy. Life imitating art.
- The point is, "the rest of us" don't necessarily want to be subject to subsidies and preaching (of whatever variety). The rest of us (I am clearly a member) want to be part of the processes that dictate who subsidizes and preaches. Given that the economic policies of the past generation have impoverished the formerly entry level jobs to which the formerly middle class youngsters could aspire, I am firmly in favor of the movement.
I have a friend who worked only 10 years as a public school teacher, and many of those years, he was not even working full-time in the public schools, but was instead a part-time employee.
He receives $1000 per month pension from the public school system. Compare that with the $1278 per month I receive from Social Security after working 38 years.
Your cited statistics, Linda_d, do not really change the reality. And as you state in your last sentence, it depends how long the employee worked in public service which was my point......all of the people who worked a shortened time as a public employee are averaged in with long-term employees like yourself which skews the monetary figures downward in studies/reports.
I do not fall for anti-public employee propagandists at all.
Even if the person is part time, that's not a bad figure.
I was interviewed for an article in Atlantic Online last spring. The woman who interviewed me was determined to make a different point than what I was trying to convey. She sent the article to me for approval before submitting it. Every quote she attributed to me was totally accurate. BUT she had a totally different agenda and made it appear that mine did not differ from hers. I did not ask her to remove o change what was written about me because I assumed, correctly, that my part in the article would encourage others who were interested in what I was doing to get in touch with me.
I look at this 79 year old woman and I seriously doubt that she agreed to be interviewed to show what a horrible life she had. I believe that she wanted to show that even with the economic collapse some years back that she STILL would be able to live her lifelong dream. She is getting tired and weary, and it is really hard sometimes, but she is living the dream. Good on her!
Many people do take to the road in RVs' during their retirement years. A great way to make some extra money while doing so [ if you can stomach it] is to offer to dump others black water before they leave [ RV places always have dumping accommodations] for 15 or 20 dollars a site. you and your "blueboy" can easily average a hundred extra dollars a day or more in just a couple hours time.
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