Stockton, CA considering filing for Chapter 9 Bankrupcty as last resort

[Det_ard]

Retiring at age 50 at 90% of your highest salary plus "nearly free" lifetime healthcare benefits sounds too good to be true or sustainable. Is this comparable to DFD pension benefits?

This is the problem in cities, counties, states and school districts all over the country. Past practices are simply unsustainable. The same practices in private industry have been largely eliminated by inherently competitive market forces consisting of a combination of concessions, bankruptcies and a general shift in business from less competitive, higher-cost, inflexible firms to more competitive, lower-cost, more nimble firms.

The same will eventually happen in the most insulated sectors of the economy -- government and education. This is just the beginning, and there will be no stopping the trend. It's inevitable because the status quo is inherently unsustainable, the only question is how quickly or slowly it will occur.

From the MSNBC piece:

Stockton officials have said since February their city's finances are suffering the combined effects of fiscal mismanagement over two decades, too much debt taken on in good times and generous pay and unsustainable benefits for city employees and retirees.

[Detroitnerd]

From the MSNBC piece: Stockton officials have said since February their city's finances are suffering the combined effects of fiscal mismanagement over two decades, too much debt taken on in good times and generous pay and unsustainable benefits for city employees and retirees.

And those costs WOULD be sustainable if the big money hadn't broken the back of labor and driven down pay, eviscerating the middle class AND that middle class' ability to fund a municipal middle class.

In other words, labor isn't the problem. Shit rolls downhill. And the problem is the rich shitting all over us. And laughing at us for blaming a continuing middle class of public sector workers as the cause of our problems.

[Det_ard]

And those costs WOULD be sustainable if the big money hadn't broken the back of labor and driven down pay, eviscerating the middle class AND that middle class' ability to fund a municipal middle class.

In other words, labor isn't the problem. Shit rolls downhill. And the problem is the rich shitting all over us. And laughing at us for blaming a continuing middle class of public sector workers as the cause of our problems.

Municipal pension and healthcare costs are problematic all across the globe. It's stunning that you'd find a bogeyman instead -- the "rich man" is at fault. He took all the money from us. Otherwise we could all be high-paid union workers. Simpleton economics.

Leave economic issues to the big boys who actually understand them. Do a music or dive bar review or something instead.

[Detroitnerd]

Municipal pension and healthcare costs are problematic all across the globe. It's stunning that you'd find a bogeyman instead -- the "rich man" is at fault. He took all the money from us. Otherwise we could all be high-paid union workers. Simpleton economics.

Leave economic issues to the big boys who actually understand them. Do a music or dive bar review or something instead.

Economists, especially those who are corporate lickspittles, love to say that normal people don't understand economics. Or else why would we need economists?

Bad times are ahead for economic "experts" though, because the majority of the people in this country are already all-too-well aware that the rich have manipulated the rules to effectively steal money and entrench their power. They will not be prosecuted by the government they bought and paid for. So somebody else has to be blamed. And since "economists" cannot blame the super-wealthy, they have to use the "shit rolls downhill" maxim and go after the next enemies of capital, those perpetual "bogeymen," the unions, which allow workers to wrest economic power away from the elite. But not everyone's buying this.

In fact, according to reliable polls across the board, everybody knows that the rich are "stealing" from the poor.

And the last people to know it, or even admit it, will be the economic "experts."