The Government-Union Attitude in a Nutshell

In a story about generous Government-employee pensions which both Charlie and Owen cite, there's a very telling quote from an AFSCME official:

Supporters of government pensions say the decline in private pensions is the problem, not the generosity of public retirement plans. "Rather than lower the bar for public employees, we need to stabilize retirement programs for everyone," says Richard Ferlauto, director of pension and benefit policy for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, a union with 1.4 million members.

Really? Quite cavalier, Mr. Ferlauto.

Mr. Ferlaouto's pals have leverage that private industry does not: the Government gets its funding at the point of a gun. (Unless you consider bank-robbers to be "private industry," I suppose...)

Perhaps it never occurred to the AFSCME membership that their pensions are stuffed full at the expense of taxpayers--a group which includes "private industry." The more taxes and regulatory costs industry has to bear, the less that's left over for pensions.