Quote from OPTIONAL777:
So you don't believe in something, fine by me.
The reality though, is a contract was made for the employer to pay for retirement benefits as part of the agreement with each employee. The government was on the hook the moment they signed the deal assuming the employees kept their end of the bargain. It wouldn't matter if the deal was collectively bargained or not. A deal was made.
An obligation in the future was created, and the fixed amount was known. If the amount of the obligation was not known at the time of the deal, then how could these projections of underfunded liabilities in pensions be known now?
The government makes their scheduled payments into the fund, but where does, or what does that money "buy" in the form of investments for the future obligation?
Does it sit in cash? Bonds? Stocks? Real Estate investment trusts, etc? Does the fund keep pace with inflation? How do the private pension funds lose nearly 500 billion dollars in value in a year?
Why would a fund manager take on a fund knowing it was underfunded for the future liability? To make a buck for themselves off of the government...that's why. So fund managers managing a government pension fund are really government workers too, unless their compensation is tied to a portion of the profits of the fund.
So we have greedy employees...remember, greed is good according to the Capitalists...and we have public servants...serving their own interest over the good of the people...and we have greedy fund managers.
So why is the union, and only the union to blame?
Underfunded pensions are everywhere, union or not, state, local, city and private industries.
Seems to me if the same problem is almost everywhere, then to blame only the unions is flawed thinking...
Good lord you are "hopeless" somebody with more patience for idiocy will have to take it from here.