Scranton, Pa. Pension Funds Going Broke

'The Citizens Voice' is reporting Scranton pension funds will be broke in 3 to 5 years-- "Scranton could be bankrupt in three to five years because its pension funds are poised to run out of money... With a funding ratio of just 16.7 percent, the city’s firefighters fund is in the worst condition of any plan in the state, Mr. DePasquale said, and will be unable to pay benefits in less than 2½ years. The non-uniform fund isn’t much better, projected to be insolvent in 2.6 years, while the police fund has less than five years."

CommentaryWe could argue unions demanded too much or that governments have underfunded their obligations. The real fact of the matter is there are several reasons.

One of them is there is a lesser population of young workers paying into these funds. Another is more jobs have become automated and/or gone overseas. One more reason is corporations have found all kinds of ways to avoid paying taxes (see my earlier posts).

As I view this there is a whole lot more finger pointing going on between people then finding solutions. We all tend to blame one another rather then actually getting together to resolve this problem. The answer is in corporate taxpayer reforms that close the loopholes. Bringing back and encouraging manufacturing in this country via bad trade agreements with China and other countries.

Currently we are pitting both the young against older retirees and blaming unions. Neither which will resolve the problems we now face. Until we address the fundamental issues regarding trade agreements and corporate tax loopholes we cannot begin to find a reasonable solution.

We can either continue to play the blame game or find the reasons why things have turned out as they did. At the end of the day we all need to work together. Poking one another in the eye resolves nothing.