The Pension Tsunami Is Coming

Tom Devine is the Valley’s openly gay, openly right-wing blogger, and he finds lots of articles with controversial points of view that I often find myself agreeing with. , Last night’s selection of an article on Reason.com made me pause and think.

It’s called “Public Employees Vs the Public Will,” and details how increasingly people are resenting the fat pensions and lifetime benefits that legislatures, public employee unions and public safety unions are fattening themselves up with.

Time magazine has a story called ‘Pension Tsunami” that details the trillions in costs that almost no municipality can actually afford to pay.  More and more states are raising mandatory retirement age to try to stem the growing red ink.

“California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has done somewhat better, extracting small but real compromises from a handful of public employee unions in recent contract negotiations.  And in New Jersey, which has the highest property taxes in the country and a deficit that tops $11 billion, Gov. Chris Christie has become an improbable folk hero for his implacable campaign against the state’s teachers union.

For his pains, Christie has endured a level of personal vituperation (aimed mainly at his fat physique) that seems uncivil even in a state never known for its warmth or charm. “

The bank will break, and the majority will soon suffer for indulging these privileged few smart enough to get government or public service jobs…that pay lifetime benefits.