Retirement clawbacks
Danny Lemieux on Jul 21 2011 at 7:43 am | Filed under: Uncategorized
Here’s a bit of good news: public sector retirees in Central Falls, RI are being asked to “give back” some of their retirement benefits because…there’s no money!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/20/us/20centralfalls.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
I suspect that many of those affected will have precious few other retirement benefits to fall back upon. This will hurt!
I venture that most Liberal-Lefties believe that when the State promises them a pension and/or other benefits, the State magically prints the money needed and/or simply returns what people originally put in. It’s pretty well recognized, I propose, that emotion-driven Liberals can’t do math (I hereby introduce Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi as witnesses for the prosecution). By contrast, we conservatives know how pension systems really work: pension funds invest in the economy in order to pay benefits from economic profits earned.
I’ve always been amazed at how Liberal Lefties, for the most part level-1 thinkers, can’t make the connection between a thriving, profit-driven economy and the benefits that they believe to be owed to them. After all, it is economic profits that generate both tax revenues and pension-fund earnings.
The flip side, of course, is that if you keep attacking the “profits” earned by “greedy” companies, you end up drying all these retirement and other social benefits at their source, which is what is happening in Rhode Island.
So, what do Liberal-Lefties expect to have happen when they attack “greedy” corporations and take away their ability and incentive to generate profits? You get a) fewer goods and services, b) higher prices due to scarcity and declining dollar value, and c) pension funds going bust.
So, go ahead and attack “greedy” oil and coal companies, but learn to live with less oil and coal and much higher energy prices. Go ahead, attack “greedy” pharmaceutical companies, but learn to live without new pharmaceuticals and crappy quality. Want to shut down industry and limit development for a cleaner environment? Well, try to do that as tax revenues dry up because profits have disappeared.
What is happening in Rhode Island will soon happen in California, Illinois, New York and elsewhere writ large. This will also happen with Social Security and Medicare, as tax revenues dry up.
So, why is this good news? Because, when older consumers and Liberal Lefties finally make the connection between healthy, profit-generating economies and the solvency of their pension plans, then perhaps attitudes will start changing for the better. I feel sorry for the individual retirees affected. But I remain hopeful that this will be the beginning of a great awakening that will benefit us all.
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8 Responses to “Retirement clawbacks”
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Speaking of big Pharma; What are the libs going to do when Israel is gone and there are les generic drugs.
http://www.suite101.com/content/generic-drug-cash-cow-a11387
skullbuster, funny you mention Israeli drugs. My wife has a rare genetic disorder that is treatable by a very expensive drug that she takes twice monthly. The drug is derived from placental material of some Chinese mammal. The animals aren’t rare, but it takes a lot of time and trouble to manufacture the drug from their small individual contributions.
Now an Israeli pharma company is in Phase III tests of a similar drug based on extracts from carrots. It will cost considerably less while delivering the same result. Gotta love those Israelis!
(I’m reminded, though, that one of the contributors here says that the section of the Hamas charter that calls for the destruction of Israel is nothing more than typical political boilerplate. So, as you’ve pointed out, not everybody loves Israelis.)
“When older consumers and Liberal Lefties finally make the connection between healthy, profit-generating economies and the solvency of their pension plans, then perhaps attitudes will start changing for the better.”
Not if they’re dead. Sorry to be so negative, but restricting life-saving expensive treatment and drugs to seniors will take care of this demographic quite effectively. I’ve already had one relative – an uncle in his early 80′s - transitioned into palliative care for a treatable condition and he promptly died.
Remember, the Left loves eugenics. Just because they stopped talking about cleansing the gene pool of humanity, doesn’t mean they stopped thinking about it. Every weak person that dies, due to youth or old age or infirmity or disease, is one more point for their Utopian Paradise. Remember that.
If and when the U.S. goes to a single (tax) payer health care system, the “System” will inevitably need to control costs and will eventually (as in the U.K.) start distinguishing between net contributors to the economy and net takers from the economy. Unfortunately, people in their latter years are net “takers” from the economy and health care policy will inevitably swing against their interests.
These Democrats get in such a huff when the MSM media turns their politicians’ kids into political issues.
That is, of course, unless they are Sarah Palin’s kids.
Like most tribalists, they believe they can raid and kill enemy tribe’s kids, but their kids should be safe.
It’s pretty well recognized, I propose, that emotion-driven Liberals can’t do math (I hereby introduce Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi as witnesses for the prosecution).
Not to mention commenters who don’t know a percentile from a piece of ceramic tile.