ABC news writes up the “class war” brewing between government employees and their employers – ie, you and me, dear taxpayer. While the report does cover some useful ground, it is an MSM report and thus does give plenty of space for the defenders of the status quo. The most absurd thing is a quote from a liberal pressure group and the AFSCME union stating that, on average, a public sector employee only gets $20,000 per year in pension benefits.
This is supposed to make us feel bad about the poor, little government employees. But as I recall, my dad was only getting about $14,000 per year from Social Security – and he only started getting that at 65. Public sector employees can start collecting their pension at 50, and keep collecting it until death, with regular cost of living increases, even if the cost of living doesn’t go up (say a person lives to 75 and retires at 55, even if its only 20k per year, that is $400,000.00…dad got about $238,000…and he paid for the guys getting 400k!). Additionally, public employee contributions to the plan are minimal…far less than, say, the SS taxes a private sector worker pays.
Additionally, I’ll bet dollars to donuts the figure is far higher than 20k. But aside from that, there are these two stark facts:
1. Public sector pensions are higher than the private sector pensions.
2. Public sector workers can retire much earlier than private sector workers.
That is the unfairness of it – the employees are getting more than the employers. If I hire someone to work for me, he gets paid less than me, period. It is absurd that someone I hire makes more than me – on average, public sector wages should be lower than private sector wages. Adjusted for State and local conditions, of course, but still lower on average.
Secondly, why does a public sector employee get to retire so young? I’ve got to slog it out until I’m 67 before I get my full social security benefits (supposing there even are such by 2031) – why doesn’t my public sector counter-part have to do the same? Heck, even on my employers pension plan, I don’t get it until I hit retirement age…even if I quit tomorrow.
Simple fairness requires a major reduction in public sector pay, as well as an end to early retirement. You can quit your public sector job after 20 or 30 years and keep your pension – but you don’t get it until you reach normal retirement age. No more 50 year old “retirees” living off the public dime or, as if often the case, taking new government employment while keeping the first pension (and thus building up a “double dip” pension in addition to the first).
We’re all supposed to be in this together – and it should be that public sector pay only rises after private sector pay, thus providing an incentive to government workers to increase the wealth of the private economy. To do otherwise is unjust, plain and simple.
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