Who shall bear us forward?

[a_new_machine]

A few weeks back, This American Life had an episode that actually asked a question that I don't think gets addressed all that often: what kind of country do we want? In typical public-radio fashion, it skewed liberal, but it's an interesting story nonetheless (the parts where Norquist explains how screwed up the pension system is for states are

Comments

[il_mio_gufo]

a good write overall :)

explains how screwed up the pension system

you know, i've always wondered how it is that government jobs maintain pension plans whilst the majority of private and not-for-profit corporations/business cannot, will not, and have not continued to offer anything similar to a pension plan ????

[musicpsych]

I think what's happening now is that governments are starting to not be able to afford pension plans, and that's why there's the debate. Governments promised them long ago, and now that they're coming due, there isn't the tax base to do what was promised. Corporations/businesses probably realized long ago that they wouldn't be able to afford pensions. (Well, that money probably went to CEO pay and benefits, at least partly.)

[a_new_machine]

More than just that, they've been consistently under-funded. Most states have known that their pension-fund growth rates were totally unrealistic (I recall one of the towns that declared bankruptcy recently was modeling their pension fund on a presumed 13% annual growth rate). Absolutely insane, willful ignorance of the true state of the pension system has lead us to this juncture. Pensions could've been in a lot better shape (not necessarily 100% OK, but better) if states and municipalities had been less short-sighted and funded them properly.