5 Myths about public employee unions

[Bill USA]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harold-schaitberger/public-employee-pensions_b_1665029.html

1. Pensions are going bankrupt.
2. States are facing an "unfunded liability" in excess of anywhere from $3 trillion to $757 billion.
3. States can no longer afford to pay benefits.
4. Public employee benefits are overly generous.
5. We can fix the pension system by converting to 401(k)-style defined contribution plans.

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[yesphan]

1. As a public employee

I can state that the statements in 1. thru 5. are:

1. Bullshit

2. Bullshit

3. Bullshit

4. Bullshit

5. pretty much bullshit

[Bill USA]

3. the GOP wants the middle class and those 'wealthy' public employees to pay for the GOP's

Trickle Down, Deregulation disaster.

[Igel]

4. Don't know about the details.

But (2) isn't far off. "Unfunded liabilities" means that given reasonable returns on investment and current amounts invested the pensions aren't able to pay out the likely obligations incurred.

There's a fairly large unfunded liability in a fair number of states, and it doesn't matter if some states have excess funds.

The counter-argument is that these pension plans aren't properly viewed in the same way you evaluate private pension plans. States are likely to pull off the Ponzi-like pay-as-you-go way of doing things, so that employee and state contributions in 2020 will help pay for those who retire in 2015.

[MichiganVote]

2. K&R

[ladym55]

5. THANK YOU!!!!

As a public sector employee married to a retired public sector employee, I really appreciate you posting this.

Any pot of money that isn't going directly into the pockets of wealthy Republicans obviously must be a problem.