[HT:FC]Subject: txt mny cali crpt -
The economy is struggling, the unemployment rate is high, and many Americans are struggling to pay the bills, but one class of Americans is doing quite well: government workers. Their pay levels are soaring, they enjoy unmatched benefits, and they remain largely immune from layoffs, except for some overly publicized cutbacks around the margins.
To make matters worse, government employees—thanks largely to the power of their unions —have carved out special protections that exempt them from many of the rules that other working Americans must live by.
California has been on the cutting edge of this dangerous trend, which has essentially turned government employees into a special class of citizens.
In Orange County, the average pay and benefits package for firefighters was $175,000 per year. Firefighters, like all public-safety officials in California, also receive a gold-plated retirement plan: a defined-benefit annual pension that offers 90 percent or more of the worker's final year's pay, guaranteed, by taxpayers, for the rest of his life (and the life of his spouse).
It's past time to start cleaning up the mess by reforming retirement systems and limiting the public unions' power. If we don't, California's financial problems will become insurmountable.
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