The headline says it all: Detroit Spent Billions Extra on Pensions.
Detroit has nearly 12,000 retired general workers, who last year received pensions of $19,213 a year on average -- hardly enough to drive a great American city into bankruptcy. But the total excess payments in some years ran to more than $100 million, a crushing expense for a city in steep decline. In some years, the outside actuary found, Detroit poured into the pension fund more than twice the amount it would have had to contribute had it paid only the specified benefits.
Joseph Harris, Detroit's independent auditor general from 1995 to 2005, described the extra payments this way:
"It was like dandelions. You just accept them. They were there, something you've seen all your life."
Sounds like socialism. Only works until you run out of other peoples money. Is this a lesson lost on Obama ? You betcha.
Detroit. Old Algonquin word for "Potlatch till you puke".
Well now! German banks bet Oma's pension on Detroit theft bonds as well as Greek ones?
I'd say that some people never learn, but if you can force the taxpayers to clean up your mess, why should you?
Yup:
The money quote:
So, according to the above numbers, pension payouts for 20,000 workers would be $230.56 million yearly. Who in their right mind would have thought that an extra $100+ million would go unnoticed? What will be very interesting to see is to which of the currently employed workers the additional pension plan payouts were going to; I suspect that they were individuals involved in managing the pension plan. The only question is why aren't all these people in jail?
Also surprising is that the race card hasn't been played yet. The innumerate Detroit pension trustees could argue that they're being persecuted using reasoning of dead white men when it comes to mathematics. Presumably, just as ebonics is the black contribution to the development of English, Detroit is a shining example of black mathematical reasoning. They can claim that their mathematical principles follow those of world respected human rights leaders such as Mugabe. The progress Mugabe made in the economics of Rhodesia closely parallel the course of Detroit.
Given the number of people that need to be jailed over what appears to be theft on an astronomical scale, it might be simplest to just build a 30' fence around Detroit and let the inhabitants know once the pension fund trustees have died off, they'll start letting people out again.
why arent the homeless heading for motown? lots of "affordable" housing /sarcoff
EBD - Alert! Looks like a flock of sparrows landed and are messing up the Comment page. :D