Are federal employee pensions going to be an issue in the upcoming years?

[Mai72]

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2011/09/how-generous-are-federal-employee-pensions/

USA Today’s figures include both pension and retiree health costs and are inclusive of military programs, so it is a broad figure. Nevertheless, it raises an interesting question: how did retirement costs for a small segment of the population grow to rival Social Security, a program designed to cover nearly all Americans? One big reason is that federal pension benefits are simply very generous relative to typical private sector plans.

People who work for the government 20-25 years are able to collect a very generous pension, plus health benefits. The thing is people are living much longer than ever before. Someone who retires at 50 probably has another 30 years of life left. That's a long time to be collecting a pension that the public has to pay.

Will this create a host of issues in the future? Can we realistically sustain this, and for how long?

 

[xaeniac]

When you create money out of thin air, the answer is it is completely sustainable, the unknown is for how long.

 

[mrjminer]

The only way for government pensions to even be remotely possible to sustain is if the employees were getting paid significantly lower salaries. The problem isn't really that the pensions exist, it's that the employees are grossly overpaid when coupling it with the existence of the pensions.

 

[IronWing]

Maybe the OP should read up on the federal retirement system before posting. The AEI is not the place to get non-skewed information.

The AEI built a ridiculous scenario to maximize the hypothetical retirement benefit for their example. The OP picked a ridiculously low retirement age to build his strawman. OP: the AEI gave you the formulas for calculating a federal pension. Use them to figure out what you HS graduate would collect in benefits. No fair using average wages; your strawman will earn well below average with no degree.

 

[Spungo]

When you create money out of thin air, the answer is it is completely sustainable, the unknown is for how long.

Thank god Bernanke and his merry band of Modern Monetary Theory retards say we can print unlimited quantities of money without causing inflation. It worked for Argentina and Brazil, so I don't see why we can't print money as well.

 

[row]

at somewhere around 4 million parasites (armed forces don't count) uncle sam is the largest employer in America, no one else comes close. on top of that you can add in state, county and local fungus (i'll give half a pass to police and firemen) so we're basically screwed. anyone who believes that this is not going to be a huge issue is either a socialist or twerks for a living. :whiste:

 

[who?]

The Federal Employees Retirement System which all federal workers hired since the late 1980s get has a small basic pension, mandatory Social Security participation and the Thrift Savings Plan which acts like a 401k but is a type of plan which it is legal for taxpayer money to go into.

 

[Triumph]

How about getting everyone else a better retirement package, rather than reducing the pretty good federal retirement package down to a lower level? Typical liberal thinking, bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator so everyone is equal.

 

[Orignal Earl]

uncle sam is the largest employer in America,

The DOD is the largest employer in the world

 

[Texashiker]

If the federal reserve can print $85 billion a month for the past 3+ years to shore up the banking industry, printing enough money to support pensions is not going to be a problem.

We might have some inflation, but just keep printing money and everything will be ok.

 

[Jimzz]

The Federal Employees Retirement System which all federal workers hired since the late 1980s get has a small basic pension, mandatory Social Security participation and the Thrift Savings Plan which acts like a 401k but is a type of plan which it is legal for taxpayer money to go into.

Yep the sweet good pension system ended a long time ago for federal employees. It was known as the CSRS. I work for DHS but am under the FERS plan so I have to pay SS and do not get the good pension that the older CSRS people do.


Even the FERS plan was recently updated to FERS+. The only thing plus is you pay more into it but get the same benefit as older FERS people like me.

The story/site and the OP are idiots.

 

[KB]

First this article is as old as dirt: Andrew Biggs | September 30, 2011, 10:27 am

But my two cents on it. There is a reason why public companies are dropping their pensions as fast as they can: because they are unsustainable. We have seen from the stock market and interest rates that there is no option for guaranteed return. The promise of 8% returns every year does not apply, and that is how the benefits were calculated for retiree pensions. My fathers pension is already using smaller growth increments like the chained CPI to keep down costs.

 

[nageov3t]

it's already happening in Jersey.

we've had a generation of bipartisan governors who promised public employees the moon in exchange for their votes. now the bills are coming due and the taxpayers are left holding the bag.

 

[fskimospy]

Friends don't let friends quote ultra-right think tanks for objective information about fiscal policy. AEI is not an objective, credible, or nonpartisan source.

 

[Texashiker]

Friends don't let friends quote ultra-right think tanks for objective information about fiscal policy. AEI is not an objective, credible, or nonpartisan source.

Didn't Alan Greenspan say we can always print more money?

Isn't that why we left the gold standard? So we can print money at will?

Pensions? What pensions? Just print a few more billion dollars.

 

[xaeniac]

So consensus seems to be it will eventually fail? Any prediction as to when pensions will get cut in some fashion?

 

[Moonbeam]

Didn't Alan Greenspan say we can always print more money?

Isn't that why we left the gold standard? So we can print money at will?

Pensions? What pensions? Just print a few more billion dollars.

You need to remember that you can't actually think, but simple regurgitate programmed associations that have been instilled into you. You are a machine that operates on auto-pilot, a line of falling dominos. This turns you into a babbling idiot.

This is typical behavior of folk who have been exposed as children to ridicule for thinking independently. You became an informer of whatever it was you took for normalcy in order to fit in and survive the shame that was thrown at you.

You were made to feel stupid and the fear that you are is what actually makes you that way. It takes great suffering and the opening of old pain to overcome this. I fully understand why you avoid facing this, but you deserve to know your real condition. I am probably the only one you have ever met who can tell you.

Good luck.

 

[JEDIYoda]

You need to remember that you can't actually think, but simple regurgitate programmed associations that have been instilled into you. You are a machine that operates on auto-pilot, a line of falling dominos. This turns you into a babbling idiot.

This is typical behavior of folk who have been exposed as children to ridicule for thinking independently. You became an informer of whatever it was you took for normalcy in order to fit in and survive the shame that was thrown at you.

You were made to feel stupid and the fear that you are is what actually makes you that way. It takes great suffering and the opening of old pain to overcome this. I fully understand why you avoid facing this, but you deserve to know your real condition. I am probably the only one you have ever met who can tell you.

Good luck.

damn that was eloquent and thoughtful and well said!!

 

[Moonbeam]

damn that was eloquent and thoughtful and well said!!

I see my iPad decided to improve on what intended by changing whatever I typed for enforcer into informer, but glad you liked it and thanks.

 

[TurtleCrusher]

How about getting everyone else a better retirement package, rather than reducing the pretty good federal retirement package down to a lower level? Typical liberal thinking, bring everyone down to the lowest common denominator so everyone is equal.

Uhh, that was your idea. Nobody suggested it.

No one.

 

[zanejohnson]

Thank god Bernanke and his merry band of Modern Monetary Theory retards say we can print unlimited quantities of money without causing inflation. It worked for Argentina and Brazil, so I don't see why we can't print money as well.

i cant believe some people still dont understand how debt, in fractional reserve banking works.

the higher the debt is, the more money is available to LEND, LEND.


the problem is.. people are hiding mass amounts of money in other currencies....which does have a horrible effect on a fiat currency backed by a fractional reserve system.........

which is as a matter of a fact, why we'll be going to war soon, and why we are AT war everywhere...


number 1 economic priority for the USA/FED is to make it so that, nobody can force our fiat currency, off the basis, of the petrodollar.. (and they are trying very hard, that's what Ukraine/Russia/China are all about) and that's why we will... inevitabaly, go to war with them.


that's why we offer so much US DOLLARS in foreign aid all over the planet.... they can never repay it.. it's not mathematically possible, which makes them ours.


the BRICS are the only countries left out there not using the fiat currency (that we back by our military) (that's what makes it THE BEST INVESTMENT
....
the countries you see causing these problems......want THERE OWN petrodollar equivalent... to get that.....it will take......something like a treasonous party in our government (like the one who has everyone convinced debt works in a fractional reserve system like it does in your own home (it doesnt, nothing AT ALL like that) or......if we get ganged up, and start looking like we might get beat in ww3......(that means our military, isn't protecting the fiat currency, and by default, the petrodollar, which means.......we would no longer be a safe investment)......... then you see new fiat currencys formed, and when one is robust enough, it will be tied to a new equivalent of a petrodollar.....


that's when we're screwed...

not because of the debt. because of treasonous political partys, who are determined to run a balanced budget on a fractional reserve system.........do you know what would happen then??? there would be zero, new money......... how's that work out for ya, when people are purposely changing there money off the dollar, and saving it offshores?

 

[Greenman]

So consensus seems to be it will eventually fail? Any prediction as to when pensions will get cut in some fashion?

You'll see a whole bunch of city's and county's go down the tubes first. That's already happening here in California. Many of the city's here offer extremely generous retirement plans to their employees. I know a fireman who started at age 25, he will retire at age 45 with 100% pay, pulse medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Government jobs in CA are like hitting the lottery.

 

[Texashiker]

You need to remember that you can't actually think, but simple regurgitate programmed associations that have been instilled into you.

<hugs moonbeam>

I have missed your post.

This turns you into a babbling idiot.

Pot calling the kettle black?


You did not address my point. We can always print more money. Need a few billion for a bailout, no problem.

 

[Jimzz]

So consensus seems to be it will eventually fail? Any prediction as to when pensions will get cut in some fashion?

If you are talking about the Fed Gov then that would be the late 70's and early 80's when CSRS was phased out and FERS was phased in.

As said already the fed pension system was gutted decades ago.

 

[NoCreativity]

If you are talking about the Fed Gov then that would be the late 70's and early 80's when CSRS was phased out and FERS was phased in.

As said already the fed pension system was gutted decades ago.

Yup. Surprisingly, they were on the leading edge of something for once. And there will probably be more.