The Progressive Domino's Start to Fall

[ImWithStupid]

…And, So It Begins: The Public-Sector Ponzi Scheme is Collapsing

<br class="clearall" clear="all"> Public-sector unions' house of cards is about to come tumbling down. Posted by LaborUnionReport (Profile)

 

Saturday, December 18th at 3:30PM EST

 

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You’ve been hearing for quite a while now that public-sector unions are a threat to the economic survival of the United States. With an estimated unfunded liability of up to $3 trillion (and perhaps much more), public-sector pensions are a noose around the neck of America’s taxpayers and it is threatening to strangle the nation.

 

More specifically, you’ve been hearing that the expensive wage and benefits packages that union-bought Democrats have given to their union benefactors could collapse our economy. The question is, can we stop it before it it too late, or at a minimum, contain the damage?

 

Well, little by little, signs are showing that, in some cases, the public-sector house of cards is already starting to fall.

 

Chicago’s Mayor Daley Discusses Bankruptcy For City Pensions

 

Mayor Daley is begging Governor Quinn for pension reform.

 

Quinn now has on his desk a bill that would allow state to withhold sales tax and income tax revenue from cities that won’t do more to fund their pension plans.

 

Property taxes will have to go up for cities to meet their pension obligations and that is on top of a massive income tax hike that governor Quinn campaigned for.

 

Daley, aldermen ask Quinn to veto pension measure

 

The Chicago Tribune reports Daley, aldermen ask Quinn to veto pension measure

 

Mayor Richard Daley this afternoon expressed his frustration with the city’s pension situation, suggesting that the retirement funds need to be fixed before leaders are forced to declare them bankrupt as a way to restructure.

 

Speaking on a Global Metro Summit panel at the University of Illinois-Chicago with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Daley at first appeared to indicate that allowing the pensions to go bankrupt so they could be reorganized was something he believes could happen.

 

“I’m one who believes that pension funds can go bankrupt and then you reorganize,

and that’s the hardest thing to say,” Daley said.

 

Moderator Richard Stengel, managing editor of Time Magazine, then asked Daley: “Let them go bankrupt?”

 

“Yes, and then you reorganize it,” Daley replied.

 

In Rhode Island, it has just reached critical mass, as public-sector unions bring a city to “financial ruin.”

 

You may remember Central Falls, Rhode Island. It made news earlier this year, when the school district fired all of the teachers at Central Falls High School for their miserable record teaching the students, then rehired them a little while later. Well, Central Falls is back in the news and the news is not pretty.

 

Receiver to city: Financial ruin near

 

The city’s financial problems are so profound that the only way to solve them is through a merger with Pawtucket or a regionalization of city services, the state-appointed receiver said in a report Thursday to the Carcieri administration.

 

“

Central Falls, in my judgment, cannot remain a stand-alone community as it presently is, unless the state wants to subsidize this into the future

,” said retired Superior Court judge Mark A. Pfeiffer, the man appointed by the state Department of Administration in July to run the city, with elected government officials in advisory roles, after those officials had earlier declared the city insolvent.

 

[snip]

 

The crisis in Central Falls has been growing for more than a decade, Pfeiffer said.

City administrations approved municipal employee contracts Central Falls could not afford and kept giving out pension and retirement benefits without figuring how to pay for them, and now the funds are running out of money.

That situation was exacerbated over the years by municipal officials who ignored it when it was manageable and only reacted when it was too late.

 

The State of Rhode Island has long been a swirling cesspool of union domination. Now, though, the ponzi-scheme of union giveaways is about to swallow one town and the state’s taxpayers may have to eat the costs.

 

While these are city pensions, states’ liabilities run much higher. Taxpayers in California, whose pension obligations are staggering, are already on the hook for nearly $60,000 per Los Angeles household and more than $76,000 per San Francisco household—money that is needed just to pay pensions of municipal and state workers’ pensions.

 

[Note: If the above video does not play on your browser, go here to view.]

 

While it is ironic that Californians just voted to re-seat the man that saddled California with public-sector bargaining to the office of governor, Jerry Brown will now be facing the mess that he helped create. However, as more municipalities and states struggle with the overwhelming debt that union bosses created, as it did when California’s Orange County went bankrupt in the mid-90s, this threatens the entire municipal bond market on a much more significant scale.

 

While there are no easy fixes to the public-pension crisis, the problem, as former SEC Chairman Aurthur Levitt notes, cannot be put off any longer. If it is, the outcome could be disastrous:

 

If investors discover that the market has instead become a way to paper over irresponsible promises, they will flee it. And no state, county, or local government will be spared the damage that follows.

 

The problem is, it has already begun. Now, the question is, do the politicians have the fortitude to deal with this problem before it collapses our entire economy, or will the public-pension Ponzi scheme take the entire nation down?

 

_________________

 

“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

 

http://www.redstate....-is-collapsing/

 

 

 

The microcosm of the scheme of states having to bail out cities, is what's coming to the US with states and the feds, same as countries in the EU are doing in Europe.

 

Progressive/Socialist policies don't work for long and the world is about to find out.

[phreakwars]

This is hilarious. Within a year, a majority of right wingers will be screaming "TAKE AWAY MY SOCIAL SECURITY, THE RICH NEED MY MONEY!!"

 

I see IWS has already gotten a head start.

.

.

[ImWithStupid]

This is hilarious. Within a year, a majority of right wingers will be screaming "TAKE AWAY MY SOCIAL SECURITY, THE RICH NEED MY MONEY!!"

 

I see IWS has already gotten a head start.

.

.

 

More of you not understanding the reality of what is said.

 

I have over the years refrained from saying this as I've seen others do, and thought it presumptive and rude, and I take no pleasure in asking, but are you off your meds?

[jokersarewild]

I'm starting to think Phreak just trolls the Anti-Progressive threads to get a reaction out of you, IWS.

 

That being said, unions should be completely redone. They've gone much further than it seems originally intended, and now their greed is going to cause them to destroy themselves and possibly others.

[hugo]

I'm starting to think Phreak just trolls the Anti-Progressive threads to get a reaction out of you, IWS.

 

That being said, unions should be completely redone. They've gone much further than it seems originally intended, and now their greed is going to cause them to destroy themselves and possibly others.

The unions are basically doing their job. It is the government officials who give in to union demands who are not.

[ImWithStupid]

I'm starting to think Phreak just trolls the Anti-Progressive threads to get a reaction out of you, IWS.

 

That being said, unions should be completely redone. They've gone much further than it seems originally intended, and now their greed is going to cause them to destroy themselves and possibly others.

The unions are basically doing their job. It is the government officials who give in to union demands who are not.

 

That's like saying the people in charge of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, were just doing their jobs.

 

When your actions are causing the destruction of the industry your union members are working in, you're no longer just doing your job.

[hugo]

I'm starting to think Phreak just trolls the Anti-Progressive threads to get a reaction out of you, IWS.

 

That being said, unions should be completely redone. They've gone much further than it seems originally intended, and now their greed is going to cause them to destroy themselves and possibly others.

The unions are basically doing their job. It is the government officials who give in to union demands who are not.

 

That's like saying the people in charge of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, were just doing their jobs.

 

When your actions are causing the destruction of the industry your union members are working in, you're no longer just doing your job.

 

The point is the unions are doing just what you and I would do if offered more money and benefits than we are worth. It is those negotiating on the other side who, as always happens when you spend other people's money, are not fiscally responsible.

[jokersarewild]

I'm starting to think Phreak just trolls the Anti-Progressive threads to get a reaction out of you, IWS.

 

That being said, unions should be completely redone. They've gone much further than it seems originally intended, and now their greed is going to cause them to destroy themselves and possibly others.

The unions are basically doing their job. It is the government officials who give in to union demands who are not.

 

That's like saying the people in charge of Freddy Mac and Fannie Mae, were just doing their jobs.

 

When your actions are causing the destruction of the industry your union members are working in, you're no longer just doing your job.

 

The point is the unions are doing just what you and I would do if offered more money and benefits than we are worth. It is those negotiating on the other side who, as always happens when you spend other people's money, are not fiscally responsible.

 

Their job is to protect workers from being mistreated via pay, lack of benefits, etc. The problem is that now they have enough power to get what they want whether it has anything to really do with the worker or not.

[builder]

I know this is from a socialist website, but is it the reality of the situation? I'm not hearing much good news about the US jobs market at all over here in booming Australia.

 

US tax data shows falling wages, rising inequality

By Andre Damon and Tom Eley

6 November 2010

 

Average annual wages for US workers fell by $457 in 2009 and the median annual wage fell by $247 to $26,261, according to recently updated data from the Social Security Administration (SSA).

 

Meanwhile, the incomes of the top-earning corporate executives barely budged in 2009. The pay of the handful of individuals making over $50 million fell by about 7 percent 2009, despite the fact that stocks fell in value by 40 percent, demolishing the claim that executive bonuses are tied to corporate “performance.”

 

Last year, in the midst of 10 percent unemployment, a relative handful of Americans lived as royalty. In 2009 there were 3,689 individuals who made between $5 million and $10 million, and 1,618 who made $10 million or more, including 425 who made $20 million, and 72 who brought in $50 million or more

 

These 5,307 tax filers, equivalent to the population of a small town, together took home about $57.62 billion in 2009, about $8 billion more than the bottom 24 million households filing taxes, and a staggering 10 percent of all income earned in the US.

[Old Salt]

Got this from a friend. This may not be the right place to post it.

 

"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband. "In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered. Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington . Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.

 

Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey. And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

 

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats-which were monitored and controlled by the electric company-be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

 

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of live-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. "The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled. I'm sorry for your loss."

 

Ed couldn't make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines-for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

 

Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the terrorists." Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost.

 

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. "A living Constitution is extremely flexible," said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan. " Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example," she added.

 

Winston's thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.

 

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility. It didn't help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13. The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to "spur economic growth." This time they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.

 

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least he had his memories. He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential. Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn't happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.

 

He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2010, when all the real nonsense began. "Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today if we'd just said 'enough is enough' when we had the chance," he thought.

 

Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.

[jokersarewild]

Got this from a friend. This may not be the right place to post it.

 

"Winston, come into the dining room, it's time to eat," Julia yelled to her husband. "In a minute, honey, it's a tie score," he answered. Actually Winston wasn't very interested in the traditional holiday football game between Detroit and Washington . Ever since the government passed the Civility in Sports Statute of 2017, outlawing tackle football for its "unseemly violence" and the "bad example it sets for the rest of the world," Winston was far less of a football fan than he used to be. Two-hand touch wasn't nearly as exciting.

 

Yet it wasn't the game that Winston was uninterested in. It was more the thought of eating another Tofu Turkey. Even though it was the best type of Veggie Meat available after the government revised the American Anti-Obesity Act of 2018, adding fowl to the list of federally-forbidden foods, (which already included potatoes, cranberry sauce and mince-meat pie), it wasn't anything like real turkey. And ever since the government officially changed the name of "Thanksgiving Day" to "A National Day of Atonement" in 2020 to officially acknowledge the Pilgrims' historically brutal treatment of Native Americans, the holiday had lost a lot of its luster.

 

Eating in the dining room was also a bit daunting. The unearthly gleam of government-mandated fluorescent light bulbs made the Tofu Turkey look even weirder than it actually was, and the room was always cold. Ever since Congress passed the Power Conservation Act of 2016, mandating all thermostats-which were monitored and controlled by the electric company-be kept at 68 degrees, every room on the north side of the house was barely tolerable throughout the entire winter.

 

Still, it was good getting together with family. Or at least most of the family. Winston missed his mother, who passed on in October, when she had used up her legal allotment of live-saving medical treatment. He had had many heated conversations with the Regional Health Consortium, spawned when the private insurance market finally went bankrupt, and everyone was forced into the government health care program. And though he demanded she be kept on her treatment, it was a futile effort. "The RHC's resources are limited," explained the government bureaucrat Winston spoke with on the phone. "Your mother received all the benefits to which she was entitled. I'm sorry for your loss."

 

Ed couldn't make it either. He had forgotten to plug in his electric car last night, the only kind available after the Anti-Fossil Fuel Bill of 2021 outlawed the use of the combustion engines-for everyone but government officials. The fifty mile round trip was about ten miles too far, and Ed didn't want to spend a frosty night on the road somewhere between here and there.

 

Thankfully, Winston's brother, John, and his wife were flying in. Winston made sure that the dining room chairs had extra cushions for the occasion. No one complained more than John about the pain of sitting down so soon after the government-mandated cavity searches at airports, which severely aggravated his hemorrhoids. Ever since a terrorist successfully smuggled a cavity bomb onto a jetliner, the TSA told Americans the added "inconvenience" was an "absolute necessity" in order to stay "one step ahead of the terrorists." Winston's own body had grown accustomed to such probing ever since the government expanded their scope to just about anywhere a crowd gathered, via Anti-Profiling Act of 2022. That law made it a crime to single out any group or individual for "unequal scrutiny," even when probable cause was involved. Thus, cavity searches at malls, train stations, bus depots, etc., etc., had become almost routine. Almost.

 

The Supreme Court is reviewing the statute, but most Americans expect a Court composed of six progressives and three conservatives to leave the law intact. "A living Constitution is extremely flexible," said the Court's eldest member, Elena Kagan. " Europe has had laws like this one for years. We should learn from their example," she added.

 

Winston's thoughts turned to his own children. He got along fairly well with his 12-year-old daughter, Brittany, mostly because she ignored him. Winston had long ago surrendered to the idea that she could text anyone at any time, even during Atonement Dinner. Their only real confrontation had occurred when he limited her to 50,000 texts a month, explaining that was all he could afford. She whined for a week, but got over it.

 

His 16-year-old son, Jason, was another matter altogether. Perhaps it was the constant bombarding he got in public school that global warming, the bird flu, terrorism or any of a number of other calamities were "just around the corner," but Jason had developed a kind of nihilistic attitude that ranged between simmering surliness and outright hostility. It didn't help that Jason had reported his father to the police for smoking a cigarette in the house, an act made criminal by the Smoking Control Statute of 2018, which outlawed smoking anywhere within 500 feet of another human being. Winston paid the $5000 fine, which might have been considered excessive before the American dollar became virtually worthless as a result of QE13. The latest round of quantitative easing the federal government initiated was, once again, to "spur economic growth." This time they promised to push unemployment below its years-long rate of 18%, but Winston was not particularly hopeful.

 

Yet the family had a lot for which to be thankful, Winston thought, before remembering it was a Day of Atonement. At least he had his memories. He felt a twinge of sadness when he realized his children would never know what life was like in the Good Old Days, long before government promises to make life "fair for everyone" realized their full potential. Winston, like so many of his fellow Americans, never realized how much things could change when they didn't happen all at once, but little by little, so people could get used to them.

 

He wondered what might have happened if the public had stood up while there was still time, maybe back around 2010, when all the real nonsense began. "Maybe we wouldn't be where we are today if we'd just said 'enough is enough' when we had the chance," he thought.

 

Maybe so, Winston. Maybe so.

 

Son of a bitch, it's 1984, but for modern times!