Why can't teachers/cops live with 401(k)'s instead of pensions?

[scottw]

Originally Posted by likwid

You forgot two questions...
And your story, while cute, leaves alot open.
How long did they save for the boat?
Do you know exactly how much were paid per year?
Do you know if any family members died and left them some money?
Do they play the market?
Does one of them have a trust fund?

Judging others by material posessions is very shallow of you.

in your little story about joebob you didn't provide many specifics about his particular situation and you didn't seem to think twice about kicking the crap out of him and calling him a hypocrit

"Why hasn't joe bob looked for a better job?
Why hasn't joe bob bettered himself (whether it be via schooling or some other means) in that 6 years to either get paid more or find a better job
Maybe he should stop complaining, stand up, and do something for himself for once instead of complaining about others?

"

yikes...maybe joebob has no legs, no trust fund, no inheritance, no windfall from the lottery or stock market, likes what he's doing and just wants to work hard and be left alone?

[likwid]

Originally Posted by scottw

yikes...maybe joebob has no legs, no trust fund, no inheritance, no windfall from the lottery or stock market, likes what he's doing and just wants to work hard and be left alone?

hey he wanted to go with the general story of the guy making 50k getting priced out of his neighborhood.

I also have to ask Jim in CT, why would someone tell their son that story? That someone else gets more than he does to their son? Do you hate your neighbor that much? Are you that jealous?

Why couldn't you teach a life lesson? That they work hard and saved up for the boat instead of teaching a distrust of teachers due to what they have. That they get a pension and they're "special".

Sure you could say its a lesson, but certainly not a positive one.

But hey, you wanna raise your kids that way, thats your right.

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by likwid

That they work hard and saved up for the boat.

Wrong again. If I want to teach my kid about the rewards of hard work, the very last place on earth I'll point to is a teachers union. Here's why. In a teacher's union, every teacher with the same experience, from the best teacher to the worst teacher, is paid exactly the same. There is ZERO financial incentive to excel. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Bupkus.

That philosophy worked great in the USSR, Cuba, and the auto unions...it gusrantees complacency and mediocrity.

In the private sector, hard working talented employees get rewarded. People who just show up and coast, get left behind.

In a teachers union,the worst teacher and the best teacher get paid identically. If someone here wants to explain the logic behind that, I'm all ears...