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Work for a Government and Rake in Bucks
In California, public safety workers retire at age 50 after 30 years of service with benefits equal to 90% of their final year's pay. ========= I am lucky to be in the 21% of private sector employees who still have a DB pension. For comparison purposes, below is an approximation of my pension, which is not indexed for inflation: 50 age/28 service - 25% 55 age/33 service - 40% 65 age/43 service - 45% If I want a better retirement, I can put my own money into the 401k, which is partially matched up to 6%. As far as Social Security is concerned, I keep contributing to it and I doubt that I will receive much from it. SS payments are already taxed above $25k/$40k. Since SS, and Medicare, are woefully underfunded, they will probably become means tested in the future. I am not complaining. I am very fortunate. However, the public sector employees have a compensation level that far exceeds what most of the people paying their salaries receive.— March 2, 2010 11:43 p.m.
Work for a Government and Rake in Bucks
Although I do not agree with SP that firemen/policemen are overpaid by a factor of 20, their total compensation (salary+benefits) is significantly higher than it would be in the private sector. It is not that they are very well compensated, but it is all the extras (vacation, overtime, sick time, and many other tricks) that are used by these retirees to increase their last year's "salary" by as much as 40%--although 10-20% is more typical. These "public servants," or should it be "public masters," have no hone, integrity or shame in padding their last year's salary basis for their pension. The boards that oversee these payments have even less honor or integrity and are derelict of their fiduciary duty to the taxpayer. I believe it was Jerry Brown who allowed the unionization of state employees that started California on its path to the current financial disaster. The Assembly and Senate have passed laws to benefit their union masters at the expense of the taxpayers. CALPERS' overconfidence at the peak of the tech bubble and their incompetence since then have turned a reasonably well funded pension plan into a sink hole that will be virtually impossible to get out of.— March 2, 2010 11:19 p.m.
Work for a Government and Rake in Bucks
Congratulations to Mr. DeMaio for bringing sunshine to this "legal" theft of the taxpayers. Virtually everyone within the political class benefits from this racket and very few will do anything until insolvency (bankruptcy) is the only option left or the voters finally wake up and vote all of these thieves out. In case anyone thinks the City of San Diego is unique, many, if not most, public agencies throughout California are in very similar situations. Contra Costa County in the SF East Bay is virtually bankrupt. The Contra Costa Times has done a very good job of highlighting the public pension racket "corruption." Below is a link regarding a couple of fire districts in affluent and relatively conservative, by Bay Area standards, communities: http://www.contracostatimes.com/search/ci_1447303… On a state and national level we are also going bankrupt. The level of incompetence, or malevolence, in Sacramento and Washington DC is astounding. A recent article by Mr. Victor Davis Hanson used what is occurring in Greece as indicative of what may happen in California and the country: http://www.victorhanson.com/articles/hanson022610…— March 2, 2010 11:03 p.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
And remember, a different kind of propaganda from special interests ... entrepreneurs who spend money to convince the public that they deserve massive subsidies. Those constructing hotels, retail outlets, shopping centers, pro sports teams all expect subsidies from government. ------- Thanks for reminder. Sports teams are some of the biggest corporate welfare recipients, where most of the beneficiaries are either millionaires or billionaires. It is one thing to expedite a cumbersome approval process and remove needless red tape, but it is totally different to subsidize private development. There is no such thing as too much transparency with government decisions. To a great extent, the political class are like roaches, when the light is turned on, they scurry and hide. In defense of decision makers, there can be honest differences of opinion and opinions can change the more facts are known.— February 25, 2010 11:53 p.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
76% of the adults (78% of likely voters) in this state think public pensions are a problem, compared to only 14% (gov employees??) who think public pensions are not a problem. ---- These numbers do not surprise me. However, lets hope they do not change when the massive propaganda effort funded by the public employee unions starts. Had the four propositions that Arnold supported in the special election a few years ago passed, we would not be in such bad shape. Ultimately, it is the voters fault that we let the propaganda from special interests influence how we vote. It is a very difficult task for the voters to understand what is going on because the political class does its best to obfuscate the information about the total cost of public employees. Even basic things like the difference between baseline and zero-based budgeting are very poorly understood and certainly not explained my most media sources. There is no need for government unions other than to protect firemen, policemen and others in difficult jobs from false accusations or other unfair attacks on their performance. When voters start reacting negatively to any political ad sponsored or paid by a government union, I will believe that this cancer can be eradicated.— February 22, 2010 12:23 a.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
I should have used the word "knaves" instead of "clowns" in my previous post. It more accurately reflects the nature of the political class.— February 20, 2010 10:51 p.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
The city of San Diego may or may not be insolvent, but it is in critical financial shape. You have to wonder about the "competence" of the clowns running the city when they want to spend money they don't have for dubious projects. Then again, look at the clowns in Sacramento and the bigger clowns, or God knows what, in Washington D.C.— February 20, 2010 10:40 p.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
In a recent column in the San Francisco Chronicle, Willie Brown, who was one of the smartest and most effective politicians, said: "If we as a state want to make a New Year's resolution, I suggest taking a good look at the California we have created. From our out-of-sync tax system to our out-of-control civil service, it's time for politicians to begin an honest dialogue about what we've become. Take the civil service. The system was set up so politicians like me couldn't come in and fire the people (relatives) hired by the guy they beat and replace them with their own friends and relatives. Over the years, however, the civil service system has changed from one that protects jobs to one that runs the show. The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life. But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers. Talking about this is politically unpopular and potentially even career suicide for most officeholders. But at some point, someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs. Either we do something about it at the ballot box, or a judge will do something about in Bankruptcy Court. And if you think I'm kidding, just look at Vallejo." Here is the article link: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/…— February 20, 2010 10:36 p.m.
Journal Mentions San Diego in Chapter 9 Story
Comparing San Diego to Vallejo is like saying apples and oranges are fruits. They both are but both have completely different favors. San Diego is not insolvent and many people question if Vallejo was too. ----- It is true that San Diego and Vallejo are different cities in terms of size, demographics and affluence. However, like many, if not most cities, counties and the state itself, both San Diego and Vallejo agreed to total compensation levels that could not be sustained in the long term. The current recession and stock market losses have simply accelerated the day of reckoning. As an example, Vallejo, which is primarily a lower-middle class city, was paying its policemen about 20% more than the Solano county sheriffs were being paid. When you include the costs of all the benefits, which do not exist in the private sector that pays for government, the total cost for a government employee increases by more than 50% and is simply unsustainable. It used to be that public employees were paid less but had job security and good benefits. Today, the average direct salary of public employees is significantly more than the average private sector salary before the cost of the platinum benefits are even included. Other than the public employee union members and their consultants, could you please refer to other sources who did not believe that Vallejo was insolvent.— February 20, 2010 10:31 p.m.
Qualcomm Lowers Forecast; Stock Plunges 9%
I do not have specific data regarding wireless phone service in either NYC or Mexico. I have not been to NYC since 9/11 and I rarely go to Mexico. I do know that Manhattan presents special challenges that can make wireless communications there more difficult. All of the high-rises create urban canyons with many reflections and path interference that can affect signal strength. The subway and the many underground spaces in Manhattan further complicate the availability of wireless signals. In the US, the frequencies used are 850 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 1900 MHz. Many overseas markets also use the 900 MHz frequency band. In the near future, the 700 MHz frequency band will be used by AT&T, Verizon and other carriers that paid over $11 billion to the federal government for about 50 MHz worth of bandwidth a couple of years ago. The lower the frequency, the better the propagation characteristics and the ability of the radio signals to penetrate walls and other obstacles. I do not believe that most carriers have a total of 100 MHz of spectrum across all the frequency bands. The new FCC chairman recently said that more spectrum needs to be made available for wireless communications. Advances in technology, many of which are being made by Qualcom, improve the number of bits that can be transmitted per available MHz. An additional factor that can affect wireless service in Manhattan is the population density. It is fairly easy, though not inexpensive, to have high-capacity terrestrial backhaul from the antenna in an urban area. However, the volume of voice calls, and particularly data transmission with computer-like phones such as the iPhone, may exceed the limited amount of available spectrum. There have been reports of O2, the original iPhone carrier in the UK, having congestion problems in London. I know that in San Francisco, which does not have the same population density as Manhattan, some carriers have more than one antenna in a city block. Each antenna requires working with a property owner or the city and then the connection to the rest of the network. The original analog cellular networks had antennas every 5-10 miles. The iPhone and other internet centric phones have significantly increased the bandwidth demands on cellular networks beyond what was originally thought and have strained the networks. Cellular service in the US can definitely be improved and some other places may indeed be better. But people often complain based on perceptions or expectations and the data, or a better understanding of the circumstances, may be quite different. On balance, cellular service in this country is as good as anywhere else. It is better in some aspects and may not be as good, or the way someone may want it, in other aspects.— January 31, 2010 11:17 a.m.