Now that the New York Times is publishing more articles on the public employee pension disaster, I've noticed a pattern in the extensive comments. They are from all over the country. Some talk about the massive amounts public employees have contributed to their own pensions. Or how the government, which is to say taxpayers, failed to contribute their share, and taxes are not that high. Or how retired public employees would face destitution if their pensions were not paid, because they were not included in Social Security saving those taxpayers 6.2% of their wages. And all the state and local taxes pensioners have to pay. Everywhere in the U.S., public employees, who already had the richest retirement benefits, cut political deals over the past 15 years to get even richer pensions beyond what they were promised when hired, just as the top executives who already earned the most pay cut office political deals to grab even more. But many of the comments asserting that public employees have been robbed as well are true in many other places, the places the comments are coming from.
But not in New York City. I ask that the reporting reflect those differences, and stop asserting that attempts to solve the problem solely at the expense of younger generations is an "of course" rather than yet more robbing the cradle. The national story is Generation Greed, and pensions are just one aspect.