There is a continuing effort to turn the middle-class against itself. Not it is manifested in public employees.

I don't see the outrage at GE for not paying taxes on $14 billion in profits, etc.

And there are many pension fund that ARE solvent.

I thought back in the early days after the fall of the Soviet Union that the unions in this country were doomed without the threat that communists posed the capitalists.

Goldy,

Put your money where your mouth is. I'm sure all those unpaid interns your paper relies on would be willing to risk not getting paid even less so they could actually get paid.

Jeff @4,

Contrary to popular belief, I don't own The Stranger. I'm just a beaten down prole like everybody else, sacrificing my surplus labor value to those who own the means of production.

The Post is wrong for ignoring the effect of dividend reinvestment, but the CEPR response is bullshit because it uses different starting and ending values when reperforming the calculation*. That 3+3 equals 6 does not disprove that 2+2 equals 4. Furthermore, average dividends over the last 20 years are really only about 2% and thus the true dividend-adjusted rate of return is somewhat lower than the CEPR figure.

*The Post appears to use 1/1/90 and 12/31/10. Try it yourself here (check the "Adjust for Inflation" box): http://www.moneychimp.com/features/marke…

...and if they'll bankrupt the state or underfund the accounts to (accidentally?) renege on their pension obligations, they'll do it to Guaranteed [sic] Education Tuition too.

Just saying.

Mr. Goldy,

I find it odd that you'd champion a cause that you would not be willing to fight for on your own.

Says a lot bout your credibility.

@12

enough misinformation. Pension funds estimated returns do not account for inflation in the first place so there is no point in trying to compare apples with oranges unless you are trying to obfuscate the issue. The CEPR analysis is right on despite your gratuitous assertions.

It would make no sense to account for inflation in a single-year return estimate. However, it does make sense to adjust the annualized return over several years for inflation if you want to calculate the average annual returns, because otherwise the dollar amounts you are using all have different relative values.

@12: The degree to which you misread my post is truly spectacular. Keep up the good work!

Okay, that probably makes more sense if it's directed to #15's post, not my own post.