You Will Never Retire
By The most depressing local story in my time in Rhode Island is the state government move to slash pension for state workers. A bipartisan effort, led by Governor Lincoln Chaffee but with significant help from the majority of Democrats in the legislature, has decimated pensions. The retired will likely never see a cost of living increase in their lifetimes. A 66 year old who lives another 25 years will see his or her life spiral further into poverty every year. Like problems in the United States Postal Service, it’s hard to deny that pensions aren’t a real problem for Rhode Island’s budget, but the solutions created for both fall entirely upon working people. Slashing pensions doesn’t solve the long-term poverty problems that the pensions are intended to eliminate.
What’s happening in Rhode Island is the canary in the coal mine. While maybe we are seeing a slight move back to economic justice in this country, I simply assume I will never be able to retire. I may be forced out when I get too old, but who among you has the money to retire? Who sees 15, 20, 30 years down the road the money to retire? I sure don’t. Of course, by the time I am forced out, the nation will have had to reckon with baby boomer poverty as the masses all retire without savings and with significant consumer debt. So who knows what the system looks like in 2040. It might be gone entirely. Or maybe we have these problems solved. But Rhode Island is pointing us in the wrong direction. If this can happen in a state as pro-labor as Rhode Island, it can happen anywhere.
Progressives always talk about electing “more and better Democrats.” Well, that’s happened in Rhode Island. Democrats have 5 to 1 margin in the legislature. Chaffee is an old-school Republican who is now an independent, but it’s not like he controls what the legislature does. What have all these Democrats done? Become the only state in New England to pass a photo i.d. law for voting, decimated state worker pensions, and passed a law declaring that bondholders have the first right to state tax dollars. It makes one wonder whether there are Democrats out there who will, say, tax the wealthy before destroying the social safety net?