-- Connecting the dots between our economy, government and business --
Summary and audio linked here.
Chicago’s political leadership is floating a pension buyout program as evidence it is seriously addressing the city’s thirty-six-billion-dollar unfunded pension liability, but Mark Glennon, founder of the Illinois policy research organization Wirepoints, said that the proposal moves debt from one column to another rather than reducing it, and that the broader fiscal picture facing the city continues to deteriorate across every measurable dimension. Audio here.
Expect no retraction or apology. This what they do.
The state’s existing buyout program for its own pensions is the precedent for Chicago, which should be a warning: Look out for similar exaggerated claims and shoddy analysis.
Full interview and summary linked here.
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Volunteered at a near-suburban food bank several years ago. Surprised by number of our POC clients nonetheless driving Lexus-level cars and carrying designer handbags, who patronized food bank, week after week, seemingly otherwise able-bodied, wanting their groceries carried-out to their nice cars. Concierge service, sans any hint of judgment. So yes, I think scammers have cash for groceries, but know “free is free”, and use their dollars elsewhere. That said, Chicago is no longer the middle-class comfort-zone it once was. Cost of living here is high: taxes, taxes, taxes, plus substantial bump in housing costs, coupled now with post-Covid rampant… Read more »
They’re at the food pantries because they drive and pay for Lexus-level cars. Our capitalist consumer culture values bling over thrift, and, spendthriftness over frugality. So you end up with a culture of $500 a month car payments, fast food 5x a week, but no food in the fridge. I have relatives that live similar to this: I once had a relative beg me for a few hundred dollars to pay bills after xmas because he/she spent all their money buying cheap consumer gift for extended family members. I was so angry because I’ve for years told my extended family… Read more »
Yet, every person visiting that food pantry, in the previous two years, wasted their stimulus checks, spent all their child tax credit advances, spent their earned income credit, all of their five figure tax refunds, spent all their extra $300 a week unemployment PUA, and now, barely a few months later, they don’t have even two nickels to rub together, and they’re back at the food pantry.
And they’ll continue to vote Democrat election.
Every food pantry should have a corresponding financial advisor.