POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

Making Promises for Someone Else

...and trying to make them stick.

Doesn't work too well in one's personal life, and it's not working too well in public life now.

Two examples from the Fat Man of New Jersey - first, via Ace of Spades, we have Chris Christie talking about how Corzine tried to suck out all the cash as he was going out the door; and the most recent decision from Christie to kill a rail tunnel for which Jersey would have been on the hook for cost overruns.

The whines go up from the crowd ... "OH BUT WE WERE PROMISED!" Yes, and who was promising? Do you see those people in the governorship of NJ? Christie isn't putting up with that crap.

All sorts of groups are learning the value of a government promise -- when they can't even pay basic bills to outside vendors, do you think you're going to be safe, public employees? You can pour as much money as you want into the election, but that didn't help ex-governor Corzine, now did it?

The governed class are now in revolt against the governing class, and trying to make them pay for the promises they have made and want to make. The money is running out fast in some pension plans; John Bury (now in new blog digs) has projected the NJ pension money will be gone in 5 years.

Of course, it's not just public employees -- people are trying to hold onto the "entitlements" that demographics are not going to let us keep unchanged... but while people don't want them cut, they do realize that they will be cut.

But this is the real bottom line - even if the public unions did manage to buy/steal the election via various shenanigans, there's not much they're going to be able to do to keep the cash train running. The money is running out, no matter who is in charge. And the way this demographic Ponzi stops working, it's not that people can cash out and get their dough before it collapses. They need a steady flow of money.... and at some point that will stop if expectations and benefits aren't moderated starting now.

And you bet your sweet bippy that a "correction" of these expectations is going on right now, and will be imposed on the Boomers. I may love my Ma, but it's not like I feel any obligation to her collective generation. Others who waited too late or had no kids...nobody is going to feel obligated to you.

And we certainly don't feel obligated to fulfill the promises you made to yourselves, hoping to impose them on younger generations.

Meep

Meep is a member of the Irish Catholic mafia, having a suspiciously high number of green-eyed, red-haired friends. While she doesn’t have red hair herself [except when she goes into the sun (rare for any vampire)], she does have green eyes. She’s a raving Papist and is a life actuary on the side [i.e., she counts dead people]. An amateur pain-in-the-ass [willing to go pro!], she likes covering retirement, mortality, math, and education issues.