Public Sector pensions

There has been a lot of vitriol in the press lately about "bloated" public pensions.  Indeed, one Washington DC based fish wrapper has a column called "Pension Pig Out" by one Mark Hemingway.  (His pic makes him look a little like old Rush Limbaugh - overfed, self satisfied etc. etc.)  So every week this Hemingway cat lists the name of a public employee that is collecting a pension that Mr. Hemingway deems excessive.  Normally the poor slob he is picking on lives in California.  One wonders what pensions in California has to do with pensions in the Washington D.C. area.  In any case, only the annual pension amount is listed.  There is no mention of how many years the employee worked, no mention of what his annual salary was before he retired - in other words no background information that would allow you to figure out for yourself whether this is an overly generous pension or not.

When I started working for the Big County Fire Department, defined benefit pensions were the norm for the corporate and public sectors.  Pretty quickly after I got hired, the corporate world starting axing their pension plans in favor of self funded 401ks etc.  Everyone at the time hailed this as part of the new corporate flexibility where employees and employers could be hired and laid off as business conditions required.  There were glowing articles in the business press how employees could now expect to have 8 or more employers in their working lifetimes - so it made sense to have a portable pension.

During the go-go 90's and early 2000s. the BCFD suffered in its recruiting.  Even with our "bloated" benefits and pensions - we could not find people to hire.  There was too much money to be made in the private sector.

Now flash foward to 2011.  Things are good for corporations - making more money than ever before.  Labor is cheap and plentiful.  However, whether willful or not, there has been a sustained assault on the midde class - it is shrinking and hurting.  It is easier to shift people's attention and blame to another closer target (i.e. public servants) than the impersonal forces of globalization.

My point with the last two paragraphs is that I went in to the FD knowing I wasn't going to get rich.  My salary, up until the last couple of years, has lagged way behind those of my college classmates.  However, I did expect a certain amount of job security in return for my dedication and service.

I am pushing 50.  My employer made a contract with me at time of hire that I would contribute x amount to my pension and that they would contribute the rest.  I have to work 30 years to collect 60% of my salary.  I keep my health care benefits (of which I will have to pay 20% of) for an additional year for every year that I worked.  Yes in today's world these are great terms - but again, this was the norm when I started my working life.  In the 8 or 9 years that I have left working for the BCFD, how am I supposed to now save up enough money to switch to a self funded 401K?  Do people realize that the average firefighter drops over dead about 10 years after retirement?  Do people understand that the reason a lot of pension systems are in trouble is because the politicians didn't fund them sufficiently?  How is this my fault?

I'm just saying......