Which of these groups should sacrifice the most?

[Indy Texas]

Option 5, not because they are unionized, but because they are government employees and and as such they'll sacrifice the most when programs are cut because they'll have to find a new job.

I have no problem with workforce cuts or delaying pay increases for public sector workers. But it bothers me when the Krazen types act like it's not unreasonable for public employees to get their pension contributions slashed.

Traditionally, retirement for all Americans was based on the three-legged stool of Social Security, pensions and private retirement savings (401ks, IRAs). The pension leg has mostly withered away for private sector workers, but they still have the other two legs.

Most public employees are not eligible for Social Security. In case you didn't hear me, the greedy public sector workers do not get Social Security retirement benefits. So it stands to reason that their pensions deserve to be more generous than private sector workers to make up for that. And to those who complain about unfunded pension liabilities, every American gets a pension from an underfunded source in the form of Social Security. And the same Republicans to will eagerly gut public employee pensions act like Social Security is a sacred cow for their old, white voter base.

[Indy Texas]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/15_retiring_atlantic_city_publ.html

About $2.2 million in unused sick and vacation time will be paid out to 15 Atlantic City municipal workers retiring this month, according to a report on PressofAC.com.

Robert Palamaro and Daniel Tamburilla, two deputy fire chiefs, will each receive more than $283,000, the report said. Nine of the other retirees, mostly fire and police, will walk away with between $125,000 and $209,000.





A dying city recently ravaged by a hurricane cuts 6 figure checks for not being sick! What a great story.

It's called enforcing previously agreed to contracts, Krazen. It's the same reason Wall Street executives got multimillion dollar bonuses simply for not quitting after they ran their companies into the ground in 2008 and got lots of what Mitt would call "gifts" from the government.

You do support enforcement of contracts and rule of law, correct?

[Indy Texas]

http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/02/15_retiring_atlantic_city_publ.html

About $2.2 million in unused sick and vacation time will be paid out to 15 Atlantic City municipal workers retiring this month, according to a report on PressofAC.com.

Robert Palamaro and Daniel Tamburilla, two deputy fire chiefs, will each receive more than $283,000, the report said. Nine of the other retirees, mostly fire and police, will walk away with between $125,000 and $209,000.





A dying city recently ravaged by a hurricane cuts 6 figure checks for not being sick! What a great story.

It's called enforcing previously agreed to contracts, Krazen. It's the same reason Wall Street executives got multimillion dollar bonuses simply for not quitting after they ran their companies into the ground in 2008 and got lots of what Mitt would call "gifts" from the government.

You do support enforcement of contracts and rule of law, correct?

There is nothing wrong with enforcement of contracts.

It is merely a sign of who the left wing cares about in this nation and who they hate. After all, it takes someone to sign such a contract in the first place.

Those who are screeching about a downsizing of a small amount of municipal employees should shut their traps if they willingly sign such contracts.

Municipal bankruptcy is coming to Atlantic City anyway. That will void the remaining contracts as AC becomes Camden East.

Please, tell us whom we hate.

In this case, the people of Atlantic City. It's really odd, I have never met a person who was paid a massive sum for not being sick. Indeed, commoners like myself are not paid when we are sick.

So basically you're just jealous that they negotiated for a better benefits package than you've got.

[Indy Texas]

There is no need for "shared sacrifice." The sonsofbitches who created this mess should pay to fix it. We need to go back to the days of the 70% top income tax rate.

What we really need is to guillotine them.  But I'm afraid that's as much a pipe dream as is raising their taxes significantly.  The have all the power, of course that's why they have all the money.

You want to decapitate Warren Buffett, Oprah and Mark Zuckerberg?

[Indy Texas]

There is no need for "shared sacrifice." The sonsofbitches who created this mess should pay to fix it. We need to go back to the days of the 70% top income tax rate.

What we really need is to guillotine them.  But I'm afraid that's as much a pipe dream as is raising their taxes significantly.  The have all the power, of course that's why they have all the money.

You want to decapitate Warren Buffett, Oprah and Mark Zuckerberg?

Who would really, in their heart of hearts, miss Mark Zuckerberg except on principle?

My point is that I'd love to hear Opebo's explanation for how Zuckerberg's wealth was derived from the exploitation of the poor. He created a product that poor people have benefited immensely from and don't even have to pay to use; the labor involved in its production came from bourgeois engineers and programmers; and those engineers and programmers, along with Zuckerberg, ultimately monetized their product via an IPO that they benefited from at the expense of...rich people and investment banks who bought Facebook stock at the inflated IPO price. If Zuckerberg has remotely taken advantage of anyone in his rise to great wealth, it's his fellow rich people.