Saturday, September 22, 2012
Pension Crisis Looms Despite Cuts
Across the country, states are cutting the benefit programs of their own public-employees. What does this say about how our larger economic policy is changing? Almost every state bureaucracy agrees that some trimming of benefits or contributory measures is necessary. But why? (link)
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Because of the increasing amount of national debt most legislators have finally realized that a change needs to happen. And I agree that we, as a country, need to lower our level of national debt however some public services will definitely suffer. I personally struggle with the cuts being made towards education funding, teachers salaries, and teachers benefits/pensions. Young people today are not enticed to go into teaching and our education system is falling behind. If we do not have good schools and good teachers who are spreading messages about equality there definitely will not continue to be any forward progression within our society.
ReplyDeletePensions and retirement age are also a big issue that need to be reformed. People now days are living longer and working longer than they used to. Manual labor is not a way of living for most U.S. citizens anymore and the government is realizing a bit too late in my opinion. This is a tough issue to tackle because the question is when to start transitioning and who exactly will be the ones losing out on what they have been paying for their whole working lives. I think policy makers have avoided this issue for so long because they don't want to personally lose out and they don't want to look like the 'bad guys'.
I agree with Beth. The education system is falling behind and the nation has known this since President Reagan's time with the A Nation At Risk Report. The entire school system has to have the resources necessary to provide the students with the best education possible. The United States has already fallen behind other countries in education because while they are improving their system throughout the years, we have stayed the same. These cuts should definitely be addresses and removed.
ReplyDeleteThe economy is not strong, that is the case for everyone, everywhere. Measures need to be taken to get us through these tough times and benefits are an easy cut. In the long run this is not the sort of incentives we want cut from our government employees so I hope in years to come, these benefits can be restored. For now, it is a nessisary evil
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that although these may be the most convenient cuts to make in the short term, they de-incentiveise going into the teaching professions. As a result, the field will be even more under paid, and the brain drain that these changes are causing will likely harm future generations because they will be taught by even less qualified and skilled teachers. Cutting benefits to public school teachers, who forgo a life of business, for the public service of teaching is a travesty.
ReplyDeleteCutting the public benefit programs does not reveal to much to me about how our economic policy is changing. Similar to what Travis said, the economy is obviously struggling in its current state and some measures must be taken. Regardless of whether or not our government wishes to keep these type of policies in place is still to be seen. However, I believe in the future when things begin to pick up, benefits for public empoloyees seems like a must keep program.
ReplyDeleteTravis brings a good. When the economy is bad, people want quick fixes or immediate action that will show improvement at the least. Cutting these systems was easy and should help a little bit for a certain amount of time. Hopefully they will be able to be, and should be, restored as this is a great benefit for everyone to have when you work for 40+ years. At this stage though, I see why they are doing it but hopefully it will be reversed when improvement is made by other policies going into place.
ReplyDeleteCutting benefits seems a bit harsh, but as many people above stated, for a quick fix this seems to be the easiest solution. For a temporary solution, I think this is necessary, but I'd also like to know of other solutions that would help. If cutting benefits helps, hopefully all of the money from these benefits are being used efficiently, so we can fix the problem, and restore these benefits.
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