Thursday, February 15, 2007

We're from Beacon Hill and we're here to help take your money

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

From the Boston Globe: "Patrick targets pension systems"

Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a tough new mandate for the state's cities and towns: If your pension system isn't performing, we're taking the money and investing it ourselves.

As part of a municipal relief package Patrick is to unveil today, approximately one-third of the state's 107 public pension funds would be forced to turn over nearly $5 billion in assets for investment by the state.
It's for your own good.

2 comments:

Brian said...

Gee, I make too much money, and my taxes are too low. Plus, I don't think I can spend my money as smartly as the Governor of Massachusetts can. I am packing up the U-Haul this weekend and leaving New Mexico for a real People's Republic.

JorgXMcKie said...

The real reason municipalities are in trouble is not that they're not investing their pension funds properly, it's that they're setting them up wrong. Defined benefit pensions never work in the long run. They *must* change to defined contribution pensions as soon as possible.