Housing authority workers who under the old plan had to wait until they were almost 60 to draw from retirement accounts -- which could be shrunk by market losses -- can now receive a guaranteed monthly pension check as early as age 50. And they'll have a guarantee of 2 percent annual increases after they retire.
The kicker?
The change in retirement benefits was made possible after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 2008 made the housing authority one of 32 Moving to Work demonstration sites. The program allows more spending flexibility to encourage "innovative" approaches that "use federal dollars more efficiently."
This is the kind of thing George Will was talking about when he wrote: "America is moving in the libertarians' direction not because they have won an argument but because government and the sectors it dominates have made themselves ludicrous."
Yes, you negotiated with another goverment employee who gets a similar beneift plan and will be long gone by the time the bill comes due. And gets no benefit if he keeps employee costs low like private industry.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
The country is Libertarian only in their minds . In reality we want SS, Medicare and cheap loans. We need to bridge what we say and what we want , and be willing to pay for what we want.
We love the libertarian ideal and fear the reality.
