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You Can Only Run Up Your Credit Card Bill So Much
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One of the biggest problems facing many cities and states is starkly illustrated in this Los Angeles Times report about Richmond, California, a Bay Area town that has had to cut jobs, services, library books, and pretty much everything else because they otherwise can't pay pension costs. This is the culmination of decades of pension giveaways to public employee unions, and now there's a choice: skyrocketing taxes or severe cuts to services. Or bankruptcy. They say that the situation came about because local politicians were making too-rosy projections for investments they thought would pay for the insanely lavish pensions, but I have a long memory and remember how people were warning that these were more about politicians buying support and ignoring fiscal responsibility even then, and it being ignored because, hey, free money. The bill's due, and if your area isn't experiencing this now, it will at some point. (Los Angeles Times)
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