Well...didn't see THIS one coming from a mile away:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/business/economy/21bankruptcy.html?_r=2&src=busln
On the weird and crooked little path that has been my life's journey, one thing early on that stuck out on that path like a 3000lb day-glo purple tumbleweed was the idea that kept knocking about in my thick little skull that if I even lived long enough TO retire, I probably would not have much of a safety net waiting for me if I did. Part of that comes from not having one when I was a kid, but the bigger part of it was seeing the overall untenability of "the system". Therefore, the draw for me when considering employment was always a "here and now" question, as opposed to a "can I work there for 40 years" question.
As it turns out that seems to have been a reasonably wise way of looking at it, though even I questioned my wisdom in taking that approach at times...but I really feel sorry for all the people who took the opposite approach: the safe way may have turned out to be the wrong way.
Who knew?
Looking at some of the pensions that public employees were promised I can certainly see at least a few problematic areas, but as people took these positions partially BECAUSE of these long term promises, it really is a huge moral hazard that is going to play out here: Yet another bait and switch for Joe and Josephine Lunchbucket, while the upper 1% gets to continue to roll around in piles of filthy lucre.
Pretty sad.
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