Thanks Dude, for the link you sent regarding outrageous pay and pensions in the University of California system.
Here’s the source article from the Los Angeles Times:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-uc-pensions-20170924-story.html
These are the kind of people who are bringing down the state, having already gutted our school system.
“Pensions are a promise“? Who made that promise – most of us were left out of the conversation. The workers made up the rules, saying the taxpayers would be left out of their “closed door” sessions. In fact, through “collective bargaining,” most of the actual workers are left out of the bargain. They have no idea how their pensions will be funded, and they don’t care.
The taxpayers didn’t promise any such thing, and if these people want these pensions they need to come up with a plan among themselves to save their pension systems.
Remember when Dad would pull the car over, and scream at the top of his lungs, “DON’T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE!”
It’s time to put public pension suckers in the back seat.
Chico Taxpayers Association 
Every single private sector company I’ve worked for readjusts the pension 401K contribution every year. Yes, the promise only lasts for the current year, and changes as business conditions change.
Many public workers are on contracts. Pensions can and should be readjusted with every contract as conditions change.
Unless we get this under control, it’s going to sink California.
Thanks Jim, you always have such a business-like way of putting things.
The only “pension” I was ever offered was a profit sharing program at a manufacturing business I worked for when I was in my 20’s. I didn’t know anything about it until it was dissolved – only senior staff were allowed to vote, and the votes were “weighted,” so the owners got their way. An older, disgruntled staffer explained to me – the owners planned on selling the company within a few years and did not want to share those profits. So we all got a nice check, based on our years of employment. After only a few years there, I received about $1,000, and as a young college student making near minimum wage, I was pretty thrilled to go along with it. But, as my co-worker explained, the long time employees, people who had been with the company since the beginning, felt screwed.
And I don’t understand why the public contracts can’t be negotiated the same way, taking the economy into consideration. After all, Tom Lando got that “memo of understanding” when he was city manager – attaching salaries to “revenue increases but not decreases…” It seems to me it’s pretty sketchy, they do what they want and challenge us to fight back, all the while making rules that specifically exclude the public from the conversation. Then they play that “promises promises” crap.
What do you think they’d do if we pulled the car over?
“What do you think they’d do if we pulled the car over?”
Not only pull over, but throw out the whiners and make them walk home.
Oh yeah, good answer! And you are one of my more reasonable friends!
Remember when Dad would pull the car over, and scream at the top of his lungs, “DON’T MAKE ME COME BACK THERE!”
It’s time to put public pension suckers in the back seat.
Unfortunately the tax eaters are driving and we are just along for the ride. And as the forces of economic reality close in they are driving the car right off the cliff, Thelma and Louise style.
Oh you’re such a man, you didn’t get “Thelma and Louise”. It’s all about, taking the driver’s seat!
You want to drive? I’ll ride shot gun?
Actually, I never saw the movie. I gave up on Hollyweird years ago. Heck, the last time I went to a theater was to see Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner!
I just saw the clip of Thelma and Louise going off the cliff. I don’t even know what the movie was about but I’m guessing they were the good guys…er…sorry…gals, so maybe that wasn’t such a good analogy. But you got to admit that government is headed off a fiscal cliff and our rulers are stomping down on the accelerator just like Thelma…or was it Louise?
That’s okay, it was a total chick flick. It was so over-hyped – I’ve only seen it within the last few years, and I had to watch it twice to “get it.”
See, Louise and Thelma are two chicks who are fed up with the male-dominated culture – Louise is a rape victim and Thelma’s husband is the stereotype of the “just wash my socks and shut up” husband. They feel they have never had any control over their lives, and when they accidentally kill a man, they realize, the only way to take control of their own lives is to run the car off the cliff.
That is really sad, because unbeknownst to Louise (Sarandon), the cop who has been trailing them (Harvey Keitel) has fallen helplessly in love with her and would do anything to help her out of trouble. I always cry when they drive by Harvey, waving gaily, into the Great Beyond, and he looks like he’s just lost his best friend.
So what does this tear-jerker have to do with the real world? We the taxpayers have been taking a Ned Beatty type of screwing for years now. I’m ready for total bankruptcy, I’m ready to throw the whole thing into the abyss, and let the pensioneers fall to their figurative deaths.
I want to hear them squeal like pigs, all the way to the rocky bottom.