I know this thread may come as a surprise from someone who was posting against conservatism but I am a reasonable pragmatic liberal and can see this question from both sides:
On the one hand, hardly anyone in the private sector gets traditional pension benefits anymore. I know there is 401Ks and all but they are not the same because you have to put a lot of your own money in. In other words you have to do the planning for your own retirement and if you don’t your on your own. So why should government workers be any different? The pensions for them were only instituted for them because everyone else had them and they had to stay competitive with the private sector to attract good people. I’m sure unions played a big role too but again, those demands were not unreasonable in the days when everyone else was benefiting from “welfare capitalism”. But now the rest of us have to pay for our own retirement so why should we help pay for the retirement of others with our tax dollars?
On the other hand, it could be argued that those in the private sector are getting screwed and the solution should not be to level down. Instead of eliminating public sector pensions its private sector pensions that should have never disappeared and should be brought back. But is this realistic?
I’m surprised so few people in there 20s / 30s think about these issues because frankly we are talking about a lot of money or the lack there of. For example, many public sector workers get 60-70 percent of their final pay for the rest of their lives with cost of living adjustments also added. For someone making 70-90 K near the end of their career this is about 50K / year for the rest of their lives. And if they live just 20 more years after retiring in their late 50s / early 60s that’s 1 million dollars!
On the one hand, hardly anyone in the private sector gets traditional pension benefits anymore. I know there is 401Ks and all but they are not the same because you have to put a lot of your own money in. In other words you have to do the planning for your own retirement and if you don’t your on your own. So why should government workers be any different? The pensions for them were only instituted for them because everyone else had them and they had to stay competitive with the private sector to attract good people. I’m sure unions played a big role too but again, those demands were not unreasonable in the days when everyone else was benefiting from “welfare capitalism”. But now the rest of us have to pay for our own retirement so why should we help pay for the retirement of others with our tax dollars?
On the other hand, it could be argued that those in the private sector are getting screwed and the solution should not be to level down. Instead of eliminating public sector pensions its private sector pensions that should have never disappeared and should be brought back. But is this realistic?
I’m surprised so few people in there 20s / 30s think about these issues because frankly we are talking about a lot of money or the lack there of. For example, many public sector workers get 60-70 percent of their final pay for the rest of their lives with cost of living adjustments also added. For someone making 70-90 K near the end of their career this is about 50K / year for the rest of their lives. And if they live just 20 more years after retiring in their late 50s / early 60s that’s 1 million dollars!