Fleecing Taxpayers Won't Fix The Pension Crisis

Oh, but they will do it anyway. One thing you can bet on is these fat "Public Sector" pensions will be paid by the rest of us working in the private sector. It will start with property tax but you can bet when it comes to "getting their" pensions from the public, they will not stop at property taxes.

www.zerohedge.com...

“We can’t go bankrupt and we can’t print money. Taxpayers are going to have to pay this bill.”

Last year, Americans paid over $300 billion in property taxes. In Illinois and other states, property tax bills exceeding $10,000 per year are not uncommon.

Most governments continually raise property tax rates, especially governments in bad financial health. It’s easy to simply ratchet up property taxes to bring in more revenue.

Politicians don’t seem to realize (or care) that it’s mathematically impossible—and counterproductive—to try to solve the pension crisis by raising taxes.

Even if tax rates double in places like Illinois, it still won’t solve the problem. And that’s assuming the overall tax collected stays the same—which it wouldn’t.

Higher taxes would make more people leave the state and actually decrease the amount collected.

This trend is already underway. More than half a million people have left Illinois over the past decade. That includes over 3,000 millionaires who’ve fled Chicago in recent months.

Many left for a simple reason: rising taxes.

Nonetheless, raising taxes is exactly what politicians are doing. And they’ll continue to do it, even though they’re long past the point of diminishing returns.

a reply to: infolurker

Pensions in general are a effing scam.

Corporations are declaring bankruptsy and bailing on their pension plans....imagine that.

I have been getting into it with the local city council the past few months over the benefits packages they receive.

The one that pisses me off as bad as pensions if medical buyout options.

a reply to: infolurker

I see this as the advent of a new paradigm shift..

Robbed pensions and retirement funds, a government $20+ trillion in debt printing fiat currency and grossly exaggerating employment and GDP numbers, and depending heavily on dollar hegemony and imperialistic/military industrial complex-tactics to stay afloat...

Not to mention blatant robbery and fraud left and right by both corporations and government who are in bed together while the middle class gets wiped clean and more and more masses are herded underneath the poverty line, where they will stay.

Paradigm shift... give it 7-12 years and a good major "correction" or two and more people will begin standing up to this crap ~ YES I'm an optimist. I hope you are too...

At some point, some cities, counties and maybe even states will go bankrupt.

The courts will help guide them out of bankruptcy and part of that will be pension reform

It may take awhile but it will happen

originally posted by: infolurker
Oh, but they will do it anyway. One thing you can bet on is these fat "Public Sector" pensions will be paid by the rest of us working in the private sector. It will start with property tax but you can bet when it comes to "getting their" pensions from the public, they will not stop at property taxes.

www.zerohedge.com...

“We can’t go bankrupt and we can’t print money. Taxpayers are going to have to pay this bill.”

Last year, Americans paid over $300 billion in property taxes. In Illinois and other states, property tax bills exceeding $10,000 per year are not uncommon.

Most governments continually raise property tax rates, especially governments in bad financial health. It’s easy to simply ratchet up property taxes to bring in more revenue.

Politicians don’t seem to realize (or care) that it’s mathematically impossible—and counterproductive—to try to solve the pension crisis by raising taxes.

Even if tax rates double in places like Illinois, it still won’t solve the problem. And that’s assuming the overall tax collected stays the same—which it wouldn’t.

Higher taxes would make more people leave the state and actually decrease the amount collected.

This trend is already underway. More than half a million people have left Illinois over the past decade. That includes over 3,000 millionaires who’ve fled Chicago in recent months.

Many left for a simple reason: rising taxes.

Nonetheless, raising taxes is exactly what politicians are doing. And they’ll continue to do it, even though they’re long past the point of diminishing returns.

The only public employees who should be receiving a pension is fire and police. Everyone else should be in a 401k.

Politicians have robbed the pensions blind and they colluded with the unions to offer benefits that are unsustainable. The taxpayer get shafted.

a reply to: FamCore


The rats already sense the anger, thus the use of the divisive language and the use of it's propaganda arm the MSM to embed it in minds. I grew up in the what is now known as the rust belt and when Bill Clinton sold out our steel industry to China, I witnessed many who got screwed on their pensions because the companies went under and couldn't pay. My father and brother were both bit!


We will end up killing each other while they laugh. They have many ways to turn our lives upside down. Imagine a scenario like a hurricane that just hit Florida and Texas but on a national level. Food shortage, power outage, etc etc....

Create a new tax bracket for those making more than $1 million/year. Stop/slow the rate of property taxes and start taxing annual capital gains at the same rate as income. Tax golden parachutes at 40%. Stop depending on property taxes to pay for schools.

a reply to: seeker1963

I'm sorry to hear about your family's woes, but am glad it awoke you to the reality at hand. The criminals running the show have only become even more daring and destructive. As they say... "Curses are like chickens, they always come home to roost"

originally posted by: infolurker
Oh, but they will do it anyway. One thing you can bet on is these fat "Public Sector" pensions will be paid by the rest of us working in the private sector. It will start with property tax but you can bet when it comes to "getting their" pensions from the public, they will not stop at property taxes.

www.zerohedge.com...

“We can’t go bankrupt and we can’t print money. Taxpayers are going to have to pay this bill.”

Last year, Americans paid over $300 billion in property taxes. In Illinois and other states, property tax bills exceeding $10,000 per year are not uncommon.

Most governments continually raise property tax rates, especially governments in bad financial health. It’s easy to simply ratchet up property taxes to bring in more revenue.

Politicians don’t seem to realize (or care) that it’s mathematically impossible—and counterproductive—to try to solve the pension crisis by raising taxes.

Even if tax rates double in places like Illinois, it still won’t solve the problem. And that’s assuming the overall tax collected stays the same—which it wouldn’t.

Higher taxes would make more people leave the state and actually decrease the amount collected.

This trend is already underway. More than half a million people have left Illinois over the past decade. That includes over 3,000 millionaires who’ve fled Chicago in recent months.

Many left for a simple reason: rising taxes.

Nonetheless, raising taxes is exactly what politicians are doing. And they’ll continue to do it, even though they’re long past the point of diminishing returns.

As most of these 'pensions' were 401K funded, the Trump led surge in the markets have taken some of the pressure off of the public sector pensions-not to mention all those 401Ks the are held privately and are benefitting millions of people- the pensions will be used as the latest excuse despite the market gains. After all, they need to blame someone.

Nothing will fix the pension crisis because the pension crisis is a small part of a much bigger crisis that is in its totality a global debt crisis. And nothing will fix the global debt crisis short of a global reset, and that will be catastrophic to the point that our pensions will be the least of our worries.

originally posted by: incoserv
Nothing will fix the pension crisis because the pension crisis is a small part of a much bigger crisis that is in its totality a global debt crisis. And nothing will fix the global debt crisis short of a global reset, and that will be catastrophic to the point that our pensions will be the least of our worries.

Sadly you are right.

We are living a different type of slavery today. One created by consumerism and debt. Money printed out of thin air with nothing to back it, yet interest must be paid to the money changers for the fiat currency they create and rule over us all with.

They could free us or collect by demanding our pound of flesh. I don't see us being freed.

originally posted by: seeker1963

originally posted by: incoserv
Nothing will fix the pension crisis because the pension crisis is a small part of a much bigger crisis that is in its totality a global debt crisis. And nothing will fix the global debt crisis short of a global reset, and that will be catastrophic to the point that our pensions will be the least of our worries.

Sadly you are right.

We are living a different type of slavery today. One created by consumerism and debt. Money printed out of thin air with nothing to back it, yet interest must be paid to the money changers for the fiat currency they create and rule over us all with.

They could free us or collect by demanding our pound of flesh. I don't see us being freed.

It's worse than that. Money isn't printed, it's *BORROWED* from international bankers. Then it goes to the central banks who lend it out to the national banks, who then lend it out. They have a clever bookmaking scheme. Whenever someone opens an account with a bank with the goal of borrowing money, the bank will claim the deposit, the monthly interest from the loan and the security (house/mortgage attacked to that loan as their own assets). Then they use those to borrow more money from the central bank. That sets up a whole chain that's repeated and repeated.

a reply to: seeker1963

I agree. It is slavery "created by consumerism and debt." Sadly, that is slavery into which the debt ridden consumer has largely sold his own self.

My family lives without debt. We currently have about $1,300 in credit card debt that we will pay off in a few days. I've used it of late largely for convenience, but we knew we'd be able to pay it off soon. That's it. We drive older cars. We don't own a house. Won't sign my life over to a damn banker for the next 30 or 40 years. We do without, but we're free. Well, as free as anybody can be in this socio-political construct.

I am what most would consider "poor." Note that I don't consider myself poor. We do not go hungry. We have clothes and a place to live and even reliable transportation. I lack nothing. I have seen poverty. In the United States, we do not know poverty.

I am content.

When the math is done, we might have a net worth of a very few thousand dollars. That may not seem like much, until you realize that most Americans have a deep negative net worth.

Greed has gotten us here, but it's not just been greed on one side; it's been plentiful on both sides of the occasion.

(See my signature below. I live by that axiom about money.)

a reply to: infolurker

I suggst that people learn how money is created and you will learn how its created through credit contracts. What do you think quantative easing is/was.

funny how how they could spend years printing money and call it quantitative easing and then turn around and say they cant print money for their own pensions.

BTW, career politicians are our worst enemy.

Their sole focus is on staying on the right side of everyone they need too, to ensure they get re-elected and get their election campaign paid for (funded). They never have an opinion on anything until the polls are out. They never say anything controversial, save for the first year or after election so they can claim they have expressed controversial views on some matters.

The people want their life pension, its the most important thing in their life and their focus.