TexDevilDog
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:30 PM
Original message |
Rhode Island city asks retirees to cut their pensions |
MichiganVote
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:39 PM
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1. Jesus, do people not get that these are old people??? Tax the fucking rich already |
RKP5637
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:47 PM
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4. They always go after the weakest, sickest, oldest and poorest. The rich will |
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kick their asses to hell and they damn well know it, the others, many, will submit because they often have no voice or are too frail, or in a bad position to fight.
It is the mark of a civilization that takes care of the weakest, sickest, oldest and poorest in a shared arrangement. It's a barbarian society that kicks them down and stomps on them. And it is a thin veil between civilization and barbarianism. And I fear in the US that veil is being shredded.
Despite the boasting and chest thumping the US often does, in many ways it's a very very weak country.
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movonne
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:55 PM
Response to Reply #1 |
7. Do you hear anything about congress and senate employees |
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giving up anything...people must wakeup...
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ProgressiveProfessor
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:32 AM
Response to Reply #1 |
17. As a group, the elderly are well off |
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It does depend on what stats you use, but there are more rich elderly than there are in other groups
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Big Blue Marble
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:45 AM
Response to Reply #17 |
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The elderly I know are barely making it. A 50% cut in their income would mean they were on the street.
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MichiganVote
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Sun Jul-24-11 04:31 PM
Response to Reply #17 |
23. Yeah ok. You let me know when you're ready to get off that life raft of BS |
MADem
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:39 PM
Response to Original message |
2. This isn't a state action, it is a small city action. |
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What a bummer for the firefighters--they didn't pay into Social Security. They're completely screwed if they don't take the pension cuts, and they may be screwed anyway.
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FLAprogressive
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:40 PM
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3. What we need is an FDIC or something for pension funds. |
RKP5637
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:49 PM
Response to Reply #3 |
5. All this pension money, SS and the like needs to be taken away from the |
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hands of politicians and the rest, and as you say we need "an FDIC or something for pension funds." This is all getting ridiculous.
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PoliticAverse
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Sat Jul-23-11 11:12 PM
Response to Reply #5 |
9. This is a problem with unfunded pensions... |
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Where people are promised they can retire after working a certain number of years at a certain pension but no money is actually put aside over the years to pay those pensions when the time comes. It is simply assumed tax revenue will be enough to pay these pensions when they become due. Many state and local governments have set up their pension systems this way - and now the bills are coming due.
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RKP5637
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Sat Jul-23-11 11:18 PM
Response to Reply #9 |
10. Thanks for the additional info.! |
Historic NY
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:08 AM
Response to Reply #9 |
13. Thank God NY's Pension system is not in the politicians hands... |
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try as they may to raid it they have been rebuffed many times over by the comptroller & the courts. W/o social security these people won't have much.
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Yo_Mama
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:15 AM
Response to Reply #9 |
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And true, too.
And where were their unions all these years? Someone needed to start worrying about this 20 years ago.
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woo me with science
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Sat Jul-23-11 10:50 PM
Response to Original message |
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Happening all over now. This is war.
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Bryn
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Sat Jul-23-11 11:05 PM
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50% cut is too much. But they're saying it's better than nothing if there's bankruptcy, they'd lose it all. Horrible! Something has to be done.
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RKP5637
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Sat Jul-23-11 11:27 PM
Response to Reply #8 |
11. IMO a lot of the financial aspects of the US need to be rethought for the |
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21st century, also the way we govern IMO needs to be rethought and modified for the 21st century. I don't think it's going to work very well. Now, how that gets accomplished I have no idea. That said, what often comes to my mind is our financial structures and governmental structures are not as broken as are the people that occupy those seats. The greed and incompetence in this country for positions of power, wealth and authority is deplorable IMO.
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Hippo_Tron
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Sat Jul-23-11 11:50 PM
Response to Reply #11 |
12. Our structures are broken if the people occupying those seats are greedy and incompetent |
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Lets face it. The way our system works right now, it doesn't tend to reward those who push legislation that helps 98% of Americans.
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RKP5637
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Sun Jul-24-11 10:07 AM
Response to Reply #12 |
22. How could/can that be fixed? n/t |
Yo_Mama
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:13 AM
Response to Original message |
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The city is bankrupt. Even for individuals, if you are facing filing for bankruptcy a lot of times creditors will deal with you, because they will get less at the court.
They can't get tax revenue they don't have, and a city with 19,000 residents sounds like a poor, old city. You can't raise taxes on older people living on SS much.
This sucks, but it's not a choice.
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Big Blue Marble
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:49 AM
Response to Reply #14 |
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Ask the citizens of the city to honor the promises that were made to these people who risked their lives to protect them. Raise the taxes and honor the pensions.
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Petrushka
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Sun Jul-24-11 12:15 AM
Response to Original message |
16. Here's another link with more information . . . plus a short video: |
no_hypocrisy
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Sun Jul-24-11 07:04 AM
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20. I heard about this on WBAI yesterday. |
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The warning comes that other cities are watching this and likely to adopt this policy, cheating retired public servants out of their own contributions to support themselves. Their choice is to accept half their money or nothing.
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Yo_Mama
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Sun Jul-24-11 04:53 PM
Response to Reply #20 |
25. You're not grasping reality |
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The median household income in this city is under $23,000. The city has been in receivership since May 2010.
Median is half below, half over. You cannot get enough income out of a tax basis like that to service all its debts. This is a tiny little place that is in receivership now. Per capita income is $10,825. 29% of the population is under the federal poverty line. 72.7% of the population spoke a language other than English at home.
It's a small place with a recent immigrant population. There is no money and there is no way to get any. The tax base is collapsing - per capita income was about 5K higher in the mid 2000s.
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Historic NY
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Sun Jul-24-11 09:01 AM
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21. This is the same tiny city that fired all its teachers..in 2010.... |
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Falls,_Rhode_Island25% of the 18000 population is below the poverty line and its tax base isn't large enough to support itself.
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Vinca
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Sun Jul-24-11 04:35 PM
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24. Why wouldn't firefighters have social security benefits? |
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A little off topic, but wouldn't the pension normally be in addition to SS? In any case, how on earth can you ask a person already retired to give up 50%? It's not like 50% of their bills are going to go away or 50% of their appetite so they don't need as much food. That's insane.
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