Yes, you are correct, thankyou.
But these are defined-benefit pension plans (e.g. a police officer who retires after 20 years with a pension which pays 70% of their salary) which, by law, are available to a much larger portion of the working population in France than the few public sector organizations who get that kind of pension in the US. It’s the fact that the benefits are guaranteed that make them such a long-term risk, that and that not being a 401(k) or other kind of personal pension savings means that current pension obligations have to be paid out whatever the state of previously invested contributions.
Or taxes.See the USA - Social Security has been constantly raided to quasi-balance the budget due to the decades long surpluses, but when those surpluses run out, that money gets “paid back” as low interest t-bills generally. State level pensions have similar issues, but can’t borrow money to cover, but can invest that money in vehicles other than t-bills, which leads to some wildly different solvency calculations amongst states due to anticipated returns not always being in line with what payouts will be, and some very risky investments (see Kentucky and a couple of other states getting crushed by the CDS markets).
And, of course, there are those who wish the uncertainty pushed onto retirees rather than pension funds.
Again, so is Social Security, which is available at 62.
I really empathise with leaders who have to put through policies which are necessary but deeply unpopular. On the other hand, I’m not sure if raising pension age is the only way to fix this, although that seems easiest, mathematically speaking.
In other news, Liberal school districts allege teh RICO against social media companies!
I wonder what they hope to accomplish with these ridiculous lawsuits. Do the parents in their regions want this? Schools are already so stretched for money, why do they think this is a good use of it?
It looks like, based on that article, that the law firm involved has agreed to take the case on contingency, so a thoughtless School Board official could easily assume that that meant it was cost-free. And they’ll only learn different when the discovery requests and deposition appointments start coming in.