Scranton's Public Workers Now Paid Minimum Wage

[faith]

faith, What happens when the money well runs dry?

I hear you loud and clear.

But it has already dried up.
It's going to be replaced with something else of which we do not yet know and what remains is for us to protect ourselves as best as possible.
Additionally remaining is the demolition of culture, the divide and conquer that is exemplified by the actions of the Scranton government trickling down to this thread. The system has failed already, the camoflage remains. We fight over the stage settings. YES, I want bandaids, such as retaining pensions for the already aged, on the corrupt, dysfunctional, HOPELESS system as long as possible, no apologies.

[Gcubed]

faith, What you WANT and what will be paid for are likely two VERY different things.

[Scorpio]

The old have contributed much for decades, your kids haven't given anything yet and won't for some time but my taxes will support their education and whatever.

Not really true, the old have been stealing from future generations for a long time, including most especially the boomers,

I could argue your point true should they have paid their way as it went along, but they did not,

The money they paid into the system, THEY SPENT IT,

There is no money left from them to carry their burden,

It isn't self-righteous, it is fact

fwiw, I am one of those boomers

[Dude]

They had a guy on TV that was running a front loader. They interviewed him about the 7.25. He said his pay scale is 19.00 an hour and he can hold out for a while, but it will be tough. Kids at home, 26 years working for the city. Probably has a decent pension plan, but if they can crush his salary, who says they can't wipe out his pension. Just thinking about these situations that people are in is painful to me. My grandmother taught school for 35 years, was relatively healthy until her stroke, didn't vacation at all, but still needed financial help from time to time...and that was 15 years ago.

You want this guy's job?

[~BS]

Not really true, the old have been stealing from future generations for a long time, including most especially the boomers,

I could argue your point true should they have paid their way as it went along, but they did not,

The money they paid into the system, THEY SPENT IT,

There is no money left from them to carry their burden,

It isn't self-righteous, it is fact

fwiw, I am one of those boomers

This is truth. Whether social security or pensions or medicare or medical coverage in retirement. A large part of the reason why cities/states are in so much trouble is because the pension payouts are unsustainable. If social security, with the combined employee/employer withholding rate of 15.3% of the employee's gross paycheck & its dismal payout is unsustainable, what would make someone think that a pension plan with a contribution rate of a few %, and much higher payout would be sustainable?

Not to mention with the boomers retiring, and people living longer than ever, the burden is falling upon a much smaller base to sustain them. Contributing 3-5% to a pension for 25 years (many can retire at age 55 with full benefits), then collecting 60 - 75% of the highest 3 years of your pay for the next 25-30 years is not sustainable. It's common sense, just look at the huge disparity in numbers.



This chart was constructed using data from the 2008 census information below

http://www2.census.gov/govs/apes/08locca.txt

[Tecumseh]

"Others" take care of my father the way my taxes take care of your kids, the way his taxes took care of "others". You are not talking about some non contributing parasite here. The old have contributed much for decades, your kids haven't given anything yet and won't for some time but my taxes will support their education and whatever. So cut the self-righteous crap, we can go on like this forever....

Your taxes haven't paid anything at all for my kids in any way shape or form but if you are volunteering to pay some of their expenses please PM me so I know where to send the bill.

Scorp is dead on about what is going on and how our system places one generation's burdens on the next. It becomes unsustainable at some point (now).

[stewie]

maybe he can still afford it? How do you know his financial situation?

The fact that he said maybe says he isn't rich. And if he isn't rich and his paycheck was just cut he SHOULD NOT go on vacation no mater what his WIFE says. Yep I went there.

I've also learned my definition of afford and other people's definition are very different. When most Americans say they can afford something they mean they have enough money to buy it on credit. When I say I can afford it I mean I can pay cash and it won't even make a dent in my savings.

Anybody thinking about taking a vacation at this point in time is likely a buffoon. I can afford to blow 3k but I still wouldn't do it, it's idiotic.

[Tecumseh]

This article probably deserves its own thread but its proof of what Scrop says. It doesn't even factor in inflation and the fact that you fund your social security with dollars early in your life and get paid much later with inflated dollars. I know that there is a cost of living adjustment but does anyone really believe that the government uses real numbers in that adjustment? I don't understand how anyone can defend this type of system.


New retirees receiving less in Social Security than they paid in, marking historic shift


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012...#ixzz22rc2euSR

[minimus]

Agreed, screw austerity.

They are free to quit and find employment elsewhere and they should as they can't do any worse than 7.25 an hour.

The purpose of dropping to minimum wage is to force employees to quit so the municipality won't have to pay unemployment.


A lot of private businesses will play the same game when they want to thin out their payrolls - they'll dream up some policy B.S. and tell the employee that they'll give him/her a choice ..... "resign and have a chance at re employment at a later date or be terminated for said violations of company B.S. policy and never have a chance to work there again".

You would be surprised at how many sucker employees take the bait and screw themselves out of U.E.


It would be nice if some companies would just man-up and do honest layoffs ....