We have seen plenty of ink spilled in the past few weeks regarding the obscene pensions collected by those who have retired from both state and local governments. Many of these workers have retired after only 20 years of service and with no age limit. Their average retirement pay is approximately $35,000 to $40,000 which is close to their year end salary. Next these retirees start their second career why collecting their juicy pensions..

Compare this to the private sector, first of all you could not retire from the private sector at such an early age. Most private plans require a retiree to be 65 in order to collect a full pension. Private plans, better know as defined contribution plans usually have a fairly simple formula. It multiplies the years of service by 1.15% and then applies this percentage by the average of your  previous 10 years salary. Simply stated a worker who reached 65 years of age and had an average pay of $40,000 for the 10 years preceding retirement his/her pension would be $13,800. Great comparison, public employee, receives 3 times as much pension, works 10 years less and retirees 25 years earlier with the ability to seek gainful employment again.  And now you know why the TEA PARTY has support from most Americans.

There is even more, most companies have done away with pension plans and now have defined contributions plans or 401Ks. This has not dawned on the greedy unions who seek more and more. Laying off one state or local worker does not sit well with the public unions. Just mention it and there is name calling threats of legal action and work slowdowns. Apparently the public sector believes that they are immune from an economic contraction. Ridiculous we say. We hop you agree.