Reality is Hard

From the New York Times today:

"In Yonkers, more than 100 retired police officers and firefighters are collecting pensions greater than their pay when they were working. One of the youngest, Hugo Tassone, retired at 44 with a base pay of about $74,000 a year. His pension is now $101,333 a year."

We have the exact same kind of thing bankrupting Illinois and the city of Chicago right now, and presumably more municipalities across the country.

Let me be very, very clear: I have the greatest respect and admiration for those who work as police officers and firefighters, but at some point (and that point unfortunately was years ago) a city or state government HAD to have seen this kind of an agreement as absolutely unsustainable through ANY kind of economy. It's very likely that this particular fireman would collect this for at least 20 more years (he's 47 now), and perhaps for much longer. I'm sorry, but the system cannot work like this. It's not even feasible. And honestly, even he, or at least his union, should have been smart enough to realize the same thing. They were dreaming.

I absolutely have no issue with the individual fighting to keep what he was told he'd collect when he began his career. But guess what, there are millions of us who've been subject to broken promises, albeit mostly in the private sector. It's not right, I know, but it's inevitable when they're promised the end of the rainbow. It doesn't exist, and we all should know that.