The Federal Reserve vs. Widows by Gary North
Submitted by bobbyw24 on Wed, 02/09/2011 - 08:01Your widow will not get the deal my mother has. My father started working for the Federal government in 1951 at the age of 33. He had served in the military from 1941–45. He retired at age 53 in 1971. For the next 38 years, he received a pension that covered all of his expenses. It was indexed to price inflation. He lived in middle-class comfort. He also had a unique medical care plan: 100% of all expenses. My mother is 93. She receives 55% of his pension and full medical coverage. She lives in a comfortable retirement facility.
Nothing like this is available to the vast majority of Americans. There are a few Federal pension programs like this, at least for senior officials and high-ranking officers in the military. The question is: Will these pension obligations be fulfilled? There are good reasons to believe that they will not be.
There are millions of retired bureaucrats living on pensions issued by state and local governments. It is becoming clear that most of the obligations will not be met. The governments will experience tax revolts from voters who will find it easy to elect officials who will formally take the governments into bankruptcy protection. The public employees' union lawyers will fight this. The judges will fight this. But the reality is this: democracy will triumph. Tomorrow's voters will decide to stiff yesterday's employees. That's the easy way to get rid of $3 trillion in unfunded liabilities. Several states are already in deep trouble. If you want to see how bad it is in your state, use the interactive chart here:
- Login to post comments
