From: Bob Sullivan
Boris,
No armed revolts here, but many unhappy people.
The perception is that public employees - teachers, police, & firemen
are retiring at 2/3 or 3/4 of annual salary as paid by the state government.
Most people are not covered by such pensions and have seen their
retirement 'nest egg' fall by 50% or more in the financial crisis.
(Falling home prices vs fixed mortgage loans have wiped out homes as assets.)
So the 'have-nots' now resent the union deals and see pensions
as something they will pay increased taxes to cover in the future.
The percieved injustice of the situation complicates things.
The public employee unions have been very successful negotiating with the
politicians. And the politicians have hidden that success in future IOU's,
not raising taxes to fund the future debts. The unions are often the
most powerful supporters of politicians with loose purse strings,
and the cycle continues.
From time to time, we throw out the old politicians and elect new ones.
Often the new politicians have no idea how to solve the problems, but
propose some outlandish remedies that make the 'have nots' feel better.
After a lot of shouting and protest, the problems get sorted and painfull
solutions are implemented.
Beyond that, many of the public employee unions accepted "future"
pension benefits in lieu of pay increases in years past. These benefits
were promised to public employees in compensation for pay raises foregone.
Part of the impetus behind the assault on public employee worker's
rights is that stripping them is a prelude to stripping private sector
workers of THEIR RIGHTS.
We are moving backwards to a time of feudalism.
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