Monday, July 12, 2010
The general public is increasingly miffed at shelling out to pay for state workers’ pensions.
Public sector pensions: unfunded and heading rapidly off the rails
I'm sure there will be the usual obfuscation about low pay in the public sector, there's no difference between public sector and state pensions in an attempt to defend this indefensible discrimination. Lets be clear, I'm not suggesting public sector employees should be denied a decent pension but why should the rest of us subsidise it?
Posted by mr g @ 12:54 PM (921 views)
10 thoughts on “The general public is increasingly miffed at shelling out to pay for state workers’ pensions.”
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nickb says:
What has this got to do with house prices?
And why do you set up a false opposition between public sector workers and ‘the general public’?
I don’t see you asking why the general public should fund bankers bonuses through public bailouts. The value of the former was £6bn last year, the same as public sector spending cuts this year.
You are going to reply with some simplistic rubbish about the private sector providing wealth which the public sector sponges off. Can you tell me what a hedge fund produces then?
Nick
Mark Wadsworth says:
If I may paraphrase, “Lets be clear, I’m not suggesting older people should be denied a decent house but why should the rest of us subsidise it?”
Cost of public pensions (as outrageous as they are) is about £1,500 per taxpayer per year; versus cost of buying a house…?
mr g says:
@ nickb
Absolutely nothing to do with house prices like so many posts on HPC but public sector pensions are very relevant to the financial well being of this country.
I have no time for hedge funds or indeed any part of the financial sector who, IMO are no more than parasites.
Re. your comment “simplistic rubbish about the private sector providing wealth which the public sector sponges off”, I would guess that you work in the public sector and assume that money grows on trees or is simply produced out of thin air as the BOE appears to believe.
Of course this sector provides essential services and we have to pay for them but no way do we have to subsidise pensions.
nickb says:
Money is created out of thin air – by the banking system, not the government. Your comments suggest such a lack of understanding it is difficult to know where to begin. I work in an educational charity part funded by government and partly through commercial activities. Doesn’t fit your simple world view? I wonder why that might be?
Nick
Crunchy says:
Dirty politics!
What a tangled web they weave when it’s so difficult to spin one. I’m sure that they will get around the moral hazard somehow.
“Were all in this together.”??? Perhaps something better. Meanwhile back on Wall St the endless fiat games continue.
Fess up Benny B, You don’t know where it’s going? It’s all cool, nothing to worry about folks.
Simon says:
Nickb @1
Surely we don’t have any right to commit our children to paying for current public sector workers pensions , do we ?
If not how would you suggest we fund public sector pensions so that :-
– they are fully funded
– the eventual recipient bears the risk of fund underperformance rather than the next generation
How many pence in the pound do you think it would add to income tax if it was paid for that way ?
They could not continue to be benefits defined could they ?
What will the rest of the population have to do for pensions ?
mr g says:
@Nickb “Money is created out of thin air – by the banking system, not the government.”
If you take the time to read my comment, you will see that I say the Bank of England (BOE) creates money out of thin air, not the government.
urbanbear says:
LOL, we as subsidising (paying) them because public employees salaries come from Taxes, IMHO any side benefits should be regarded as part of the salary and treated as such, and cut as a whole to sensible amounts!
letthemfall says:
I think I’d rather subsidise public pensions than private banks. At least I’m getting some value from the public sector.
urbanbear says:
All state benefits (including state pensions, state employee pensions, NHS, the rest of the Welfare State) which are not backed by independent trust funds, with allocated marketable investments, are Ponzi schemes, therefore their expenditures must be cut as their funding diminishes, i.e. it is a fantasy to think we can magically fund ‘fair pensions’, just because it seems like a nice idea; that’s just a Socialist delusion!
I realised that state pensions are doomed years ago, which is why I use the opt-out for the state pension, I can, and instead invested the money privately, so the growth at least keeps up with real inflation, rather than declines against real inflation!