It's Not Raining, We're Getting Peed On (2): The Scam of the Deficit Crisis

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



It's Not Raining, We're Getting Peed On (2): The Scam of the Deficit Crisis

by Jonathan Tasini
Tuesday 30 of November, 2010


Yesterday, I kicked off a series of posts about the phony deficit/debt "crisis" with an excerpt from the introduction to my new book, "It's Not Raining, We're Getting Peed On: The Scam of the Deficit Crisis". Today, I'll continue with a part from the first chapter called, "Stupid Statements".

In honor of the mind-boggling decision by the president to single out public employees' pay for attack, I'm actually going to go a bit out of order here.

Stupid Statement #6: Public sector workers get lavish pensions.

The average pension for a transit worker in New York is about $20,000-a year. Living most of your working life under ground—whether you drive a train or walk inside a tunnel to do maintenance—is a job choice that very few of the people who attack transit workers’ "generous benefits" would ever make. Other city workers’ pensions are in the low 30s. And firefighters’ pensions average around $70,000.

Ask yourself this: How many times have politicians fallen over each other as they rush, to get the maximum p.r. value for their own careers, to the site of a fire or a shooting, where a cop or firefighter has died. They stand in front of cameras and microphones and spout the words "the ultimate sacrifice"...but now those very politicians are saying that firefighters or policemen, having survived the day-to-day grind and threats on the job, should not get to have a decent pension so they can live out the rest of their lives in some semblance of dignity and respect.

Let’s check out teachers’ pensions. Most teachers’ pensions mix years of service and age; the majority of their pension plans offer full retirement after age 60 or 62—and, if most kids were like you and me in grade school or high school, don’t you think they earn every penny? Look at yourself in the mirror: you were not a picnic to deal with in school.

Lavish pensions for teachers? In California, the average pension for a retired teacher with more than 30 years of service is $5,526. That’s a "high-end" pension: a bit over $66,000 a year. Shoot across the country to Maryland’s Carroll County school district and you’ll find this: if a teacher with a Masters degree, who has worked for 25 years at the top salary of $76, 895, decides to call it a career at age 62, the teacher’s annual pension would be $28,605 plus Social Security. Yup: totally yacht-buying, Mercedes-driving, private-plane flying retirement, huh? ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=15040

[Autumn]

1. Rain is cool, piss is warm,

it's easy to tell the difference.

[xchrom]

2. recommend

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

[unblock]

4. the deficit crisis is real. a bit premature, but real. the SCAM is that we HAVE ALREADY sacrificed

we HAVE BEEN sacrificing and we HAVE BEEN sacrificed mercilessly ever since reagan came to power.

decent wage increases have vanished, wealth improvements are reserved for the already ultra-rich, the social safety net is threadbare and they want MORE sacrifices from us?

the deficit is gargantuan, and when/if the economy ever improves, it will be a serious drag on growth and a real inflationary threat. we're not there yet, but it's out there. but austerity NOW and for those who HAVE ALREADY SACRIFICED is the real scam.

the ultra-rich, who have benefitted throughout are the ones who should make the real sacrifices, and no one's even talking about them taking much of anything in the way of real sacrifice. and no, returning to clinton-era tax rates is NOT a sacrifice, the ultra-rich did absolutely fantastic under clinton.

[girl gone mad]

5. When/if our economy improves,

the deficit will automatically shrink.

[unblock]

8. agreed, but not enough to make the problem go away.

[WinkyDink]

6. My husband, with Master's plus 60, taught 30 yrs and never got more than $62K. Retired 2001.

So I don't want to hear about MD, frankly. Sorry, but I really hate the disparity in teachers' salaries.
We're a tad north of Philly.

[raccoon]

7. I think a lot of people think state employees all make the big bucks, because

once in a while they'll see a newspaper article talking about big shots at state agencies who do make the big bucks.

They don't think hard enough to realize that most state employees don't make NEAR what the head honchos make.


K&r.