[quote=pri_dk]I do agree that state employee pensions are overly generous. But I don’t know the numbers. How much of the budget goes towards pensions? Is it 30% of the total budget? (probably not that high) Even if was that high, and we slashed pensions by 33%, that only reduces the total budget by 10%. Still not enough. (And BTW, there’s no law against you or I becoming a state employee — we could enjoy the perks as well.)

In general, we are probably in agreement with the basic sentiment that government spending is too high. But vague, generic rants about it don’t help, and only clutter the message boards. A real solution will require some homework – crunch some numbers and propose a specific course of action. Otherwise it’s just complaining.

Although I’d like to see the gov’t change course on some fiscal matters, I certainly don’t think any of this is anywhere near depressing. Even if we go totally broke, we can still go outside and enjoy the sunshine. After all, we live in California.[/quote]

The pensions are to make up for the low salaries most government workers received as compared to their private sector counterparts and thus lowered savings for retirement and later medical expenses. I do agree that perhaps the healthcare costs can be contained by not providing all the bells and whistles–but where to draw the line?

As for grandma’s meds, most grandmas didn’t live to 90+ back in the day so they didn’t need all those meds. And with retirees living longer, they will need MORE savings/pensions to get them through those years. Starting to get Orwellian…