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Originally Posted by WTF
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OK WTF, I'll come back from my sabbatical temporarily for a post. You and I agree on deficit spending and the national debt but are far apart on this issue, which boils down to whether something like a defined contribution pension plan or social security is superior.
I don't like the writer's solution at all, rolling public pensions into social security. That's just doubling down on a massive "Bernie Madoff" shell game. I do somewhat agree with his thoughts as to why we're in this mess though:
Public-sector pensions are yet another reason why the big corporate and financial sector political contributions in America overwhelmingly favor Democrats. These pension systems, and the benefits they provide, establish a common interest between government workers and big finance. Through the political agenda of their public-sector unions, which are overwhelmingly Democrat, the economic interests of public employees and America’s wealthiest elites are kept in perfect alignment.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe Trump has a lot to do with this. I believe the pensions were set up by state and local governments for the benefits of their employees, not the Feds.
The problem probably is that many of these pensions are defined benefit plans. They guarantee the worker defined payments after retirement, regardless of whether the plan has the assets required to make the payments. So, if as described in the article, the plan only has 80% of what it needs, then presumably the taxpayer may have to step in to make up the difference. If it's a private company or a municipality (but not a state), presumably bankruptcy would be an option.
The way the system is now there are huge risks. It's a huge problem in Brazil, which does this at the national level, and will be a huge problem in Illinois and other places.
My proposed solution, convert these defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans, so the pensions don't have to make payments to pensioners that would exceed available assets. I'd even do that with social security, that is convert it to a system like what Singapore or Australia has, which I've gone on about here so many times you're probably rightfully sick of hearing about it.
CaptainMidnight. Tiny....please explain the Public Sector Pension problem to the Trump Lovers 
