Name:   MartiniMan - Subject:   MM's wish list Date:   1/8/2018 5:40:17 PM

First of all, I am not belittling govt employees en masse.....remember, my wife worked for EPA for 9 years and I am not that dumb.  :-)  I work with them every day at the Federal, state and local level and there are lots of very qualified people with all the education you see in the business world.  Some are very good, some mediocre and some awful....just like the private sector.  But there is a reason for the general public's ire that goes well beyond the long lines at the DMV.  Check out some recent studies of govt pay and you will see it goes well beyond DC.  I know because I interview them on a regular basis and when you add up the salary, benefits, insurance, time off, etc. they are very well paid.  It's not just the take home, it is their total compensation that has gotten out of whack.

So based on my experience talking to them, Federal and state workers are very well paid, local not so much.  But the pension system, especially for state employees is ridiculous and is wildy underfunded, especially in states like Illinois, California, Massachusetts and other left ing paradises.  That means it has to be paid by the taxpayers who are left with SS, 401k or IRA's.  We see state workers that have put in 20 years that are getting 80% of their end salary for the rest of their lives.  Many of them will make more after they retired than they did in the entire careers.

As for private companies, indeed many of them could no longer afford their pension programs.  And many lost their pensions after a bankruptcy.  But the vast majority of private companies didn't take the pension away, they just stopped contributing to them and their employees had to switch to 401k programs.