I started this blog a few years ago, then life intervened. A new job, a new home, surgery and an unexpected bout of a rare neurological disease called Transverse Myelitis kept me from giving this topic the attention it certainly deserves. I firmly believe pensions are where you will find the seeds of the next GREAT RECESSION in America. Now I'm back, and a few things have changed in the public pension realm. I may have been MIA on this blog, but I have been paying close attention to the state of the public pension systems in the US and to some degree, Europe as well. Not only am I am truly alarmed at the increased rate of the death spiral, but am truly alarmed at how little has been done by governments in the past four years to address that death spiral. There was much talk of pension reform a few years ago, but those reforms have turned out to be band aids, and flimsy ones at that. "Fluff and stuff," "smoke and mirrors," "sleight of hand" or "let's pretend to do something to get re-elected by the public without pissing off the unions who actually get us elected." No matter what you call it, the seeds of the next Great Recession have sprouted in my absence, and are now saplings, soon to be full grown trees. Trees are probably a bad analogy. Trees take a very long time to mature. The pension crisis is not like a tree, it grows exponentially, and boy is it is on a roll. It's like the Blob from the old sci-fi movie, oozing through every orifice of the taxpayer's life, getting bigger and bigger, suffocating everything in its path, except of course, for the public servants' salaries, benefits and pensions.
In future posts, I will attempt to shed light on some of these issues, and you WILL be amazed, incredulous, angry and yes, you will feel like the sucker you are, working hard to get ahead in the private sector, wondering why you're not really getting ahead, while Joe Public Worker has been picking your pocket the whole time, right under your nose, with you blissfully unaware. I will show you how the unions have been marketing a carefully crafted message for years, shaping the image of the public "servant" who "sacrifices" for the public good, because they have a "calling" for public "service," or the "educator" (not merely a teacher anymore because a teacher doesn't deserve a salary as enormous as an Educator) who gave up a lucrative career in the private sector (one of many myths to be dispelled) because teaching, like all public service is a "calling." Well, it ain't "all for the kids' as I will expose. I guess we are supposed to believe the uniformed sanitation worker in NYC felt the calling too. Who the hell says "I want to give up a good job in the private sector (myth) to smell rotten food and dirty diapers for 20 years because I have a calling which compels me to keep my city clean for the public good"? Buy that line and I really do have an oceanfront condo in Arizona to sell you.
More to come, and this time I promise!
