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People truly have to look at the "Root Causes" that has driven the system into a mass chaos of rip and strip, pump and dump and run with the loot.
If we don't see or care to see the Root Causes, then we will only spin in the madness of the symptoms and never figure out how to fix it.
The hard truth is often hard to digest, but we need to seek how the impact of education, media image promotion and other types of madness, including in home training, of pumping young people up to think they should feel entitle to live the fantasy life they see in commercials and sit come shows.. They become adults who will destroy anything trying to find that imagery and measure of self based on the fiction that was groomed within them.
Today, we have mass bullying, by one kid over another, because they don't fit some media image profile, or have some media promoted gadget and they are made to feel 'less than" by the bullying of others.
This is the madness we created. If anyone thinks this craziness has not INFECTED our systems, and damaged our society, its only because people don't want to be honest about the impact of media and depictions, that has blinded us from even considering "ethnic", and people are made even to feel like an outcast if they think in terms of compassion about and for others, and if people think to respect society, now days, they are told they are a fool and should only be concerned about themselves.
This is the madness we created as a people within our society, its taught in too many homes, too many institutions and the media is saturated with that madness training.
We need to IMMEDIATELY, awaken!!!!!
The only way we fix this, is by people first and foremost... Accepting the Responsibility to Respect Other People, even if you look different, speak different, have different hair, have different skin, or clothes... We must learn how to become a society, who "respects the Character" and Promote Good Character, we must be people who support Good Ethic's and Promote Good Ethic's...
The more we fail at such things, the more vicious and corrupt and criminal the society becomes and the vile of it, brings us downwards with a mind numbing pace.
We need to not just awaken, but stand up, speak up and learn so we know what we are talking about to avoid getting into emotional fits!!! So we can stay focused on what truly matter, and help the young learn... that material matter and money is not the measure they should equate themselves. They should be of concern for society and the well being of society and self, as a combined realism.
Do you know why Congress required the USPS to fund 75 years of pension liabilities?
It's not 75 years, it's being funded for what is expected will be paid out for current employees so they don;t end up in the boat we are discussing now. This is sound fiscal policy to prevent the taxpayer being left on the hook for the pensions of 100's of thousands of former USPS employees.
These are the facts. The USPS's bread and butter has always been their monopoly on first class mail. That is becoming irrelevant. Their profits and employees are going to continue to decline because of automation and their market shifting to one with competition from the private sector. Subsequently they will have less revenue for pension obligations in the future and less employees paying into it.
Quote:
knowing it would make the US Post Office insolvent, which would be great for UPS and FedEx, bad for the American people....
The USPS has lost money in some years even when you set the pension benefits aside. Having been in the delivery business what I can tell you is the way you profit is by having customer saturation in the areas you serve, the USPS has 100% staturation nationwide. By all rights companies like UPS and Fedex should not even exist because the USPS should be able to bury them especially considering they don't even need to profit.
Do you know why Congress required the USPS to fund 75 years of pension liabilities? It's because Repub's who controlled Congress at that time are in the pocket of UPS and FedEx and passed that law knowing it would make the US Post Office insolvent, which would be great for UPS and FedEx, bad for the American people....
USPS has been operating at a loss for over 10 years now.
And that "forcing" of prefunding only gets them to 80% funded. That is about what private companies fund.
Yet they are crying about it ?
"They can't put anything on the internet that isn't true." -- Abraham Lincoln
This an issue that has been developing for about the last 10 years and the 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the issues tremendously. Take you head out the sand and do some research.
This an issue that has been developing for about the last 10 years and the 2008 financial crisis exacerbated the issues tremendously. Take you head out the sand and do some research.
I'm not saying there aren't problems. I was responding to the advice to "just Google it" as if popular websites like Zero Hedge are a reliable source of information.
There's plenty of far-right propaganda out there that seeks to undermine public sector pensions.
I'm not saying there aren't problems. I was responding to the advice to "just Google it" as if popular websites like Zero Hedge are a reliable source of information.
There's plenty of far-right propaganda out there that seeks to undermine public sector pensions.
sure but you have to wade through it. In this case ZH didn't make up the numbers. They were just the messenger and other media sites also carried the same type of article also as messengers.
Serious decades of underfunding state and many municipal pension plans in Illinois created a massive crisis. It did not matter if the prior governor was a Republican or Democrat, all were guilty. The former Daley Sr, long time mayor of Chicago, ended strikes by the powerful Chicago Teachers Association and other unions with a stroke of a pen that increased all benefits, including pension. Taxes should have been immediately increased to fund those benefits. Instead, the can was kicked into the future. Had he taken fiscally responsible action and increased taxes with every newly bestowed benefit, the public would have kicked his butt out of office.
It's ironic that years later, it would be Daley's son who would be mayor as the cumulative underfunding hit the fan. Knee jerk decisions made during his tenure to balance the budget, were short- sighted. Long term tolling and parking rights were brokered by Wall Street Investment bankers at below market rates was a biggie.
The prior Illinois Governor, Pat Quinn, a Democrat, along with a Democrat legislation, approved landmark pension reform that was intended to stop compounded annual cost of living increases for retirees, extend retirement age for current workers and limited the amount of salary used to calculate pension benefits.
Public unions sued. Eventually the Illinois Supreme Court ruled the state constitution created a contractual agreement and once bestowed, public benefits cannot be dismissed or impaired. What the state or municipal employee was promised on the first day of work cannot be reduced.
This was a huge blow to the state and Chicago as well as many other municipalities. Neither the current mayor of Chicago or the current or immediately prior governor are responsible for this mess.
Illinois is one of 7 states with constitutions that protect pensions of existing and retired workers from reform.
Politics and fiscal distress have no bearing.
Current governor seeks to amend the state constitution. It is highly uncertain if such an amendment could withstand a challenge, as it relates to retroactive benefits.
The state and municipalities have some of the most generous pension benefits in the country and do not have the flexibility that exists in 43 other states. Pension benefits are not taxed in Illinois and the state tax rate is lower than neighboring Wisconsin that has substantially more flexibility in terms of pension reform that Illinois does.
Although anecdotal, the retired and soon to be retired teachers I know, all intend to relocate out of state, at some future date. some want to relocate to be closer to their adult children. Some seek a more favorable climate. And some want lower taxes. Interestingly, many are targeting California while others target Texas or Florida.
All of these pensions, both private and government, will receive huge haircuts through either sovereign default, inflation, or most likely both.
Not only do I believe its going to happen - but I also believe it will be witnessed and discussed here on this site by quite a few of the very same people who post here now.
That depends.
Private pension plans are guaranteed to some extent by ERISA and the Public Benefit Guaranty Corp which has the ability to borrow funds from the Treasury and increase insurance rates to make good on obligations.
Public pension plans do not qualify for ERISA. States cannot bankrupt and have an unlimited ability to tax to meet their obligations.
My state provides an annual cost of living bump to protect retirees from inflation. This is one of many benefits guaranteed by the state constitution. There is huge uncertainty that an amendment to the state constitution could retroactively change accrued benefits.
It's quite possible that a sovereign debt implosion in California begins, and then ends with other severly debt-ridden states like Illinois and Oregon, simultaneously imploding, and it sends the whole house of cards crashing down.
States have an unlimited ability to tax to meet obligations.
"The problem is the politicians who are supposed to collect taxes to pay these future bills have either not been collecting enough money and pensions are underfunded or not funded at all."
They collected the money but, spent it on other things.
Think it's a tad more complicated than that.
Some states/ municipalities did not increase taxes / reduce costs sufficiently to fund pensions.
The public tends to not like legislators who raise taxes, regardless of reason. It encourages politicians to kick the can.
This occurs at every level of government.
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