The Public Pension Crisis is Our Undoing

QUESTION: Mr. Armstrong; Thank you for explaining the difference between a public employee pension and those we have in the real world. The fact that the bulk of these people never contributed to a pension was shocking. How is this going to be resolved?

GH

ANSWER: It will not end well. Government employees have the defined-benefit (DB) while we get the defined-contribution (DC) plans. Most state and local government employees, actually 87% of those working full time, participate in a defined benefit (DB) pension plan. They contribute NOTHING but are guaranteed a pension on top of what they earned, plus free healthcare for life. The vast majority of those in government have NEVER had to save anything. They are there now demanding that our futures be stripped. We are to be taxed until we die, and upon death, they want what is left.

This situation cannot end nicely. It is the same way that Rome collapsed. When the government could no longer afford to pay the army, it began sacking Roman cities that opposed their general. They turned inward and cannibalized their own cities, weakening the entire empire, thereby allowing the barbarians to come through the gates. We have followed the very same mistakes as Rome. This is just how empires always end. We are no different.

How can someone working for the government negotiate their own pension? This entire system is flawed and we are paying the price of civil unrest.