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But you can't change that. That will actively destroy lives : "Of all the nonpension payments, she said, 54 percent went to active workers, 14 percent went
by waps 13y ago
But you can't change that. That will actively destroy lives :
"Of all the nonpension payments, she said, 54 percent went
to active workers, 14 percent went to retirees and 32
percent went to the city, which used its share to lower
its annual contributions to the fund. The excess payments
were often made near the end of the year, when recipients
needed money for the holidays, or to heat their homes."
“It would be a human catastrophe of the first order if
pensions of vulnerable older workers can be cut whenever a
local government goes to bankruptcy court,” Stein said.
“We will be consigning firemen and policemen, who did
nothing wrong other than protecting the city and depending
on the city's promise, into old-age poverty.”
Firstly, the government agreed (in law) to cover this. It is not acceptable for the government to go back on that promise - whatever it takes. Sucks if you're a US taxpayer I guess.
If you're a US taxpayer, either you or your parents (indirectly) agreed to these conditions. It's dishonest going back on them. I'm not a socialist at all, but this is repayment of debt incurred : it's NOT optional.
Having read in history how unions react when their members essentially have the choice between death or getting what they want ... you don't want to go there. They will completely disable the entire country, and frankly, they'd be right to do so.
- yummyfajitas 13y agoIt was not acceptable for the Detroit Government to do what they already did. Now it's done and the money ran out. All that remains to do is divide what little money remains between the various debtholders. (Normally bankruptcy also wipes out shareholders and turns debtholders into shareholders, but it's not clear what that would mean in this case.) I've never been to Detroit, I've never voted there and I'm not sure I could find it on a map. I'm a complete stranger. It's unacceptable to force complete strangers like myself to pay insane debts that they didn't even have the opportunity to vote against, particularly when the debtholders were already paid. No one will die in the US simply by having their pensions cut. They'll simply have to accept the same standard of living as most non-workers which is roughly the average standard of living in Poland and Mexico and the 95'th percentile of India. Last I checked the Polish, Mexicans and Indians weren't dying off.
- genwin 13y agoTheir pensions were contracts, which like any contract are subject to change by a bankruptcy court. So it's legal for the gov't to go back on the promise of pension payments. It's not ideal but the money to pay them simply isn't available. Unfortunately these workers were offered a pipe dream rather than their pension total being fully deducted from their paychecks.