A warning for NJ? In Greece, they are now rationing pensions.
July 1, 2015 — 3:13 AM EDTUpdated on July 1, 2015 — 4:44 AM EDTIt’s a day of fresh indignities for the people of Greece.
About a third of the nation’s depleted banks cracked open their doors after being closed for three days. But all they did was ration pension payments, hours after the country became the first advanced economy to miss a payment to the International Monetary Fund and its bailout program expired.
While Greek retirees receive a fraction of what they’re due, European officials resume efforts to prevent the economy from cratering after more than five years of crisis-fighting. Finance ministers weigh a new aid bid from Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and European Central Bank policy makers discuss whether to maintain their emergency lifeline.
“People are just completely fed up,” said Andrea Montanino, a former IMF executive board member who now heads the global economics program at the Atlantic Council in Washington.
The first poll before a snap referendum Sunday indicated most people back Tsipras. The survey, in Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper, showed 54 percent would vote “no” — rejecting austerity in exchange for aid — and 33 percent would vote “yes” — accepting austerity as the price of staying in the euro. The poll was conducted by ProRata, which surveyed 1,200 people June 28-29 with a margin of error of 2.8 percent.
Turned Away
On the third day of capital controls, a few dozen pensioners lined up by 7 a.m. at a central Athens branch of the National Bank of Greece, an hour before opening time. They were to receive a maximum of 120 euros ($133), compared with the average monthly payment of about 600 euros. Many left with nothing after the manager said only those with last names starting with the letters A through K would get paid.
“Not only will I have to queue for hours at the bank in the hope of getting 120 euros, but I’ll have a two-hour round trip,” said Dimitris Danaos, 77, a retired local government worker who was making the bus journey from his home outside the Greek capital to the suburb of Glyfada. “And I fear that this situation won’t be over anytime soon.
It is a shame that the pensioners had to line up but they are not working anyway.
We have public employees retiring at age 50 and collecting a pension based on the latest annual salary. It is not sustainable and we all know it. Taxpayers are fed up with government redistribution of wealth.
Divide the funds and convert to private accounts. Use the business model. Private employers did this years ago and no one died.
Greece unpaid debt €320bn = US$355BN. NJ unpaid debt just for pensions & healthcare = $170BN ($83bn unfunded state pensions $53bn unfunded future health bills, $21bn deficit in pensions for local government employees, and $14bn in post-employment benefits like paying out accumulated leave). Add in NJ’s state & local general obligation debt, plus the $17BN debt owed by the Transportation Trust Fund which is a vampire squid of greed and corruption, and NJ all by itself has >US$200BN in debt, equal to more than 60% of the amount of unpaid bills in Greece. Which leads to the joke that instead of “Going Dutch” when you pay for dinner, we now have a new term “Going Jersey” where people eat, drink and make merry but then when the bill arrives, everyone stands up, holds out their empty pockets, and says, ” I can’t pay up”.
Nice analogy. The people of New Jersey made merry while the government failed to fund the pension, and now they want to walk away from the debt that they profited from ( sevices, property tax rebates, atc.).
We can argue about the size of pensions, but the agreement was made, and the government reneged on the agreement. The people drawing pensions have paid in out of every pay check.
The average pensioner; not collecting $100K, not retiring at 50 and not claiming a $26k health benefits package in retirement. Based on my experience,
I realize that there is very little chance of this opinion getting posted on this one-sided blog, but I will continue to attempt to reply to the continuous misinformation and exaggeration which is taken as fact on this site.
I couldn’t have said it better 3:15 pm you hit the nail right on the head. Well done.
We’ve been making merry? We’re paying the highest state and local taxes in the country and we still look like Greece… Something’s not right there. The Greeks don’t pay much tax which is part of their problem. Our state pays the highest taxes in the U.S. And yet as a state, we’ve run up over 60% of the Greek debt…. Taxpayers also paid their taxes, much more than public workers ever paid in on their pensions or healthcare
public workers pay taxes and pay into their pensions 4:46.
No mention of how the state made an agreement with the Feds to be exempted from having police and firefighters participate in social security so the state could save money and screw police and firefighters.
Now the state wants to screw with their pensions too. Enough is enough. Taxpayers have had it with the pork. Cut the pork and fund the pensions.
How much did you pay in to your pension 4:46? If you live to 85 will you make more lifetime income from your working career or from your pension, be honest.
8:01, you must have missed the recent NJ Supreme Court ruling saying the state was not obligated to fully fund the pensions. Face facts, the money is not there. Raising taxes to maintain benefits for early retirees and screwing active employees by downgrading them to bronze level healthcare in 2018 is not a solution, that just feeds the vampire squid that has been sucking the lifeblood out of the state for 20 years. No tax increases without equivalent benefit reductions, that’s reality.
8:01, you want to trade your pension and healthcare for my social security?
8:01, police & fire fighters are getting screwed? An avg $57k annual pension (closer to $100k in Ridgewood) and a $26k annual family health plan after 25 years of work and retirement in your early fifties is getting screwed? Mortgage rates almost a point lower than the rest of us subsidized by your pension plan? Six months of accumulated leave paid out when you retire at your highest final comp rate, not at the rate for when the sick days were awarded? Sounds more like you’re screwing everyone else.
5:06 pm, just how much did you actually pay in to your $3.5 million pension? Just how much do you actually pay every year for your $26,000 family health coverage? Is that sustainable in your view?
The cost of the pensions and health care is too damn high
Hey 1:00 am, you apparently have a reading and comprehension problem. I clearly stated in my comment at 8:01 pm:
Enough is enough! The taxpayers have had it with the PORK. Cut the PORK and fund the pensions!
So now tell me genius at 1:00 an exactly where in my comment posted at 8:01 pm do I even mention raising taxes?
@4:46…We pay the highest taxes in the country for a few reasons… first, 500 odd local municipalities with their own governments, schools, etc… that’s not cheap…. then you have some of our larger cities requiring taxpayer based support…and the north subsidizes the south county wise (kind of like a microcosm of the country)…. but, the biggest reason is that NJ is the most “independent” state of the federal government. What that means is that we are a donor state to the tune of 10’s of BILLIONS every year, with most of these funds going to red states… we only get back about 60 cents for every dollar to DC… Our reps on both sides totally shaft us… why does no one see that as an issue? If we got about 70 cents back for every buck, we could fund everything and run a surplus to boot… yeah, some of the pension stuff is over the top but no one says boo about the federal transfer of payments deficit that we have…
Paul we are going to push this discussion next week your not being ignored
I just thought i was getting the respect I truly deserved 🙂 Happy 4th
Happy 4th but when you’ve got almost as much unpaid liability as Greece you’ve got a serious problem. And you refuse to answer even a basic question about how much you contributed to your pension and how much you pay for your up to $26k healthcare plan every year? Stop barking at airplanes and address the issue of cost vs contribution amount. You’re not paying enough in and you’re taking too much out.
12:56: If I live to be 85, based on my current retirement goals, the amount I earn from my pension will be less than half of my lifetime earnings. The truth you asked for. OBTW, I don’t plan to retire before I am 67.
I currently pay 34% of the cost of my individual health insurance, This is a much higher percentage than the average in the private sector. My wife’s coverage covers her and the kids. Hers is cheaper, and better than mine … and she works in the private sector. Unfortunately adding me to hers is incredibly expensive.
Wait, I’m confused 9:52, what’s your point? Despite the highest state and local taxes in the land and a population of 8.9mn people, Trenton politicians have managed to ring up over $200 BILLION in unpaid credit card bills in NJ, roughly 60% of what Greece owes with 10 million people mostly evading taxes. Something doesn’t trouble you, even in the slightest about this?
5:37, I was answering a direct question.
Yes I am concerned about the fact that politicans stole money from the pension in order to cut you breaks on your taxes, and now want to blame me for their actions and your benefit.
The truth of the matter is that you benefitted from the money that wasn’t paid into the pension, but you want to blame me.
The level of pension benefits has beeen lowered for new hires Health benefits are now being paid for by workers at levels above the private sector. Pay raises have been capped at 2% no matter what I do or what the economy does. My take home pay is less than 1.5% more than it was 4 years ago. Yes I am troubled.