TenuredVulture wrote:Given the problems with state pensions (even though Arkansas is in better shape than most in that regard) I'm glad I'm in a defined contribution plan. Admittedly, it's a generous defined contribution plan (university match +2% up to 10% maximum match).

there appear to be two major problems with the current pension plan system:

1. legislators deciding almost unilaterally to unfund pension programs while not taking the measures to lower benefits. either fund the programs or don't, but don't offer the pensions then. in the 90s, lots of governments just decided that 10% yearly returns were the norm and so they didn't have to set aside the correct base level contribution because money would just create itself.

2. we are at the mercy of Wall Street in regards to return rates. 2001 and 2008 show we cannot take these risks. there needs to be way more reforming and oversight into transcations. they are literally trading more money than actually exists. they are bundling student loans just as they did mortgages, and the liability of student loans is rising at almost exponential rates. another crash is coming. something needs to be done so everyone isn't screwed in 3 years. there is nothing wrong with making money on Wall St; hell, it's been done for decades upon decades. Disappointingly, the feds are always about a decade behind in regards to enforcement, and often are even complicit in these shenanigans for fear of retribution or lack of free money when they leave government.

smaller cities don't have the base of knowledge to properly deal with benefit plans. the feds need to step in, but it doesn't appear anything will be done. we are heading towards a REAL crisis and we're going to figure it out after it's too late

you guys

did you see what i posted when you were being white dudes arguing about race again? the guy who fucked up Katrina made a Katrina joke during the Super Bowl

come on

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

oh whoa. wow

i agree with everything trent said regarding monkeys

pacino wrote:2. we are at the mercy of Wall Street in regards to return rates. 2001 and 2008 show we cannot take these risks. there needs to be way more reforming and oversight into transcations. they are literally trading more money than actually exists. they are bundling student loans just as they did mortgages, and the liability of student loans is rising at almost exponential rates. another crash is coming. something needs to be done so everyone isn't screwed in 3 years. there is nothing wrong with making money on Wall St; hell, it's been done for decades upon decades. Disappointingly, the feds are always about a decade behind in regards to enforcement, and often are even complicit in these shenanigans for fear of retribution or lack of free money when they leave government.

What would you do on student loans? Give out less? The problem isn't that Wall Street is re-selling these assets; it's that the federal government pushes to make student loans more available than a interest-only mortgage in 2006.

CalvinBall wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

I don't get it. Then again, I don't understand twitter, and why people share tweets as if this thread title was "Stupid things people say on twitter having to do with politics or political persons."

jerseyhoya wrote:

Youseff wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:He was a) repeating something that someone had just posted and b) badly misrepresenting what was said. His post was crap coming and going, so I dismissed it snarkily.

In the future I will make sure to have long, well footnoted posts on this baseball message board - the zenith of human discourse - in response to every poor post any of you make, since this has troubled you all so much.

Not really buying what you're selling but you're the same guy that doesn't seem troubled by Drudge posting pics of Obama, Stalin and Hitler above an article conflating the 3 of them, so I'm not surprised.

jerseyhoya wrote:Drudge posted something insane to get page views?! Well I'll never

It's almost as if you have no idea what words mean. I called the post "insane" and you bring it up a month later as a mark against me with the recollection/translation I wasn't troubled by it.

reading it again and I still think it's a shitty response by you. oh that Drudgy. boys will be boys!

Werthless wrote:

pacino wrote:2. we are at the mercy of Wall Street in regards to return rates. 2001 and 2008 show we cannot take these risks. there needs to be way more reforming and oversight into transcations. they are literally trading more money than actually exists. they are bundling student loans just as they did mortgages, and the liability of student loans is rising at almost exponential rates. another crash is coming. something needs to be done so everyone isn't screwed in 3 years. there is nothing wrong with making money on Wall St; hell, it's been done for decades upon decades. Disappointingly, the feds are always about a decade behind in regards to enforcement, and often are even complicit in these shenanigans for fear of retribution or lack of free money when they leave government.

What would you do on student loans? Give out less? The problem isn't that Wall Street is re-selling these assets; it's that the federal government pushes to make student loans more available than a interest-only mortgage in 2006.

the over-inflation of the cost of college, coupled with for some reason making education a commodity to be bought, created that, not the feds. that the feds subsidized these loans is a huge issue, but the major thing is that we, unlike most 1st world nations, appear to think of education as something with a closed door policy.

i would work with banks to try to simply abolish as much of this debt as possible. eventually i would like to give out less, yes. we already are starting on that road with the change of taking out third parties when they are not needed.

Werthless wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

I don't get it. Then again, I don't understand twitter, and why people share tweets as if this thread title was "Stupid things people say on twitter having to do with politics or political persons."

sick burn, bro

why do you respond? just stay on your high horse and don't descend to our level

So the Fed is making the loans directly, and in greater volumes. Would you rather that private companies were not allowed to offer student loans at all?

I think the Fed should stop guaranteeing student loans (ie. let them be discharged in bankrupcy after 15 years, say) , and student loan organizations would probably be more discerning with their loans. So if you want to go $160,000 in debt to be an art teacher, loan organizations will just say no. Yeah, in the transition, it will suck for some people. People will likely have a harder time getting loans, and the college prices will not have adjusted to the new normal. But by making these changes, we'll stop inflating this ridiculous student loan bubble, and also begin to de-romanticize the college choice. Five years after graduating, no one cares that they "fell in love with the college" when they can't afford to pay back their loans.

td11 wrote:

Werthless wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

I don't get it. Then again, I don't understand twitter, and why people share tweets as if this thread title was "Stupid things people say on twitter having to do with politics or political persons."

sick burn, bro

why do you respond? just stay on your high horse and don't descend to our level

That was not a burn. Maybe of twitter, and maybe of MichaelBrownUSA, but not of any poster here outside of maybe myself. I just don't understand. And I don't feel like googling around to learn why I should be offended by a random tweet.

pacino wrote:so corbett is going to try to cut pensions. this was money promised, people paid taxes, workers worked for it, and the PA legislature willingly underfunded the pension system for about the last 15 years. now, they have just decided to say 'meh, we aint paying'. now they want to go to a 401k system, which we all know works out just great.

i love it. politicians screw up and the workers get screwed. pa workers have been contributing, and actually had their contribution rate raised in 2010 for all incoming employees. why did the PA legislature decide to just ignore funding it?

the fairest thing is to fix how the amount is calculated. now, they average the top 3 salaries received. that makes no sense. you should average the entirety of one's career. it's only fair. disregarding a certain amount of OT would be appropriate, as well.
the multiplier should be slightly lowered. we also need to raise taxes. this is money owed.

You, sir, should be running the joint.

We should not be cutting funding to state colleges and community colleges; we should be increasing it.

Time for banks to go state's evidence in order save them from themselves and their employees. Work woth the feds or get the stick in the form of coming down hard on them

TenuredVulture wrote:politicians probably shouldn't use twitter

You could have stopped here, and left out "probably."

Werthless wrote:

td11 wrote:

Werthless wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

I don't get it. Then again, I don't understand twitter, and why people share tweets as if this thread title was "Stupid things people say on twitter having to do with politics or political persons."

sick burn, bro

why do you respond? just stay on your high horse and don't descend to our level

That was not a burn. Maybe of twitter, and maybe of MichaelBrownUSA, but not of any poster here outside of maybe myself. I just don't understand. And I don't feel like googling around to learn why I should be offended by a random tweet.

ur weird

i think it's fine to discuss political tweets by politicians in a politics thread

mozartpc27 wrote:so corbett is going to try to cut pensions. this was money promised, people paid taxes, workers worked for it, and the PA legislature willingly underfunded the pension system for about the last 15 years. now, they have just decided to say 'meh, we aint paying'. now they want to go to a 401k system, which we all know works out just great.

i love it. politicians screw up and the workers get screwed. pa workers have been contributing, and actually had their contribution rate raised in 2010 for all incoming employees. why did the PA legislature decide to just ignore funding it?

the fairest thing is to fix how the amount is calculated. now, they average the top 3 salaries received. that makes no sense. you should average the entirety of one's career. it's only fair. disregarding a certain amount of OT would be appropriate, as well.
the multiplier should be slightly lowered. we also need to raise taxes. this is money owed.

Just noticed this... I assume you mean that the fix on how the amount is calculated is only on unearned pension liabilities, right? If that is the case, then what is your objection to shifting to a private plan akin to a 401k? Mine works great, because I fund it. Do you mean that the options in 401k's are bad, they should only offer annuties (which is what pensions are), or that people are too undisciplined to save enough so their savings need to be forcibly taken and invested?

Werthless wrote:I think the Fed should stop guaranteeing student loans (ie. let them be discharged in bankrupcy after 15 years, say) , and student loan organizations would probably be more discerning with their loans. So if you want to go $160,000 in debt to be an art teacher, loan organizations will just say no. Yeah, in the transition, it will suck for some people. People will likely have a harder time getting loans, and the college prices will not have adjusted to the new normal. But by making these changes, we'll stop inflating this ridiculous student loan bubble, and also begin to de-romanticize the college choice. Five years after graduating, no one cares that they "fell in love with the college" when they can't afford to pay back their loans.

Just one more step toward ensuring we have a permanent underclass forever.

td11 wrote:

Werthless wrote:

td11 wrote:

Werthless wrote:

CalvinBall wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:Michael D Brown ‏@MichaelBrownUSA
Someone just told me there was fighting going on in the NOLA Superdome. #shocked

here it is.

I don't get it. Then again, I don't understand twitter, and why people share tweets as if this thread title was "Stupid things people say on twitter having to do with politics or political persons."

sick burn, bro

why do you respond? just stay on your high horse and don't descend to our level

That was not a burn. Maybe of twitter, and maybe of MichaelBrownUSA, but not of any poster here outside of maybe myself. I just don't understand. And I don't feel like googling around to learn why I should be offended by a random tweet.

ur weird

i think it's fine to discuss political tweets by politicians in a politics thread

OK, I googled. Michael D Brown the politician is the shadow senator representing Washington DC. The other Michael D Brown has a radio talk show and is a failed government beaurocrat who headed the FEMA response team. Not a politician, but easy to dislike. Not sure about the whole racism thing on this... I think he was just making fun of New Orleans for being riotous, just like the rest of the country makes fun of Philadelphians for being asshole fans.

That context might have been helpful to understanding the tweet.

JFLNYC wrote:

Werthless wrote:I think the Fed should stop guaranteeing student loans (ie. let them be discharged in bankrupcy after 15 years, say) , and student loan organizations would probably be more discerning with their loans. So if you want to go $160,000 in debt to be an art teacher, loan organizations will just say no. Yeah, in the transition, it will suck for some people. People will likely have a harder time getting loans, and the college prices will not have adjusted to the new normal. But by making these changes, we'll stop inflating this ridiculous student loan bubble, and also begin to de-romanticize the college choice. Five years after graduating, no one cares that they "fell in love with the college" when they can't afford to pay back their loans.

Just one more step toward ensuring we have a permanent underclass forever.

Lending someone $160,000 to be an art teacher enables them to throw off the shackles holding them in the underclass?

We need to stop romanticizing the college decision and ensure that 17 year old high school seniors are not being led into debt whose lengthy payoff has been hidden behind a flashy brochure and exhortations to "listen to your heart." The federal government throwing money and guarantees at it has been a net positive, sure, but too many kids have been made worse off. The fact that many of these decisions were bad even without the benefit of hindsight suggests that some market indicators should be welcomed.