Quote:
Originally Posted by Penn
My frame of mind is July 14th
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I couldn't resist tossing in my $.02.
Before 9/11 analysis was my "Bread and Butter". I had a group of folks who did that for over 17 years. (God, I'm Old)"
I've never seen someones analysis in an area where I knew the terrain, that I found to be correct. Analysts peel half the onion, and quit unless prodded.
My folks were so good that the famous RAND used to send their analyses on military ground vehicles to us for corrections before they published. Nuff said.
Couple of thoughts to toss into this. CBO cites Civil Service as "fixed benefits" vs. "fixed contributions". That's half true. That old system went out in 1986.
Under the old CS system, your pension caused the cancellation, or at least a significant partial cancellation of your Soc Sec benefits just because you worked for the Govt. My "loss" is about $500 per month, but it beats h$ll out of the current system. AFAIK corporate retirees get their full SS.
Under the current system, the pension is base salary
x years of service
x 1%. (The old system was 2%)
So, a civilian who retired after 20 years gets 20% of their previous salary. If they previously made as much as an E-8 with 20 years, they would get 20% ($953) of pay but would also get social security. Actually, with a reduction for health insurance of about $400 and another reduction of $100 to continue half your pension for a surviving spouse, your retirement check hits $453 (10%) per month plus Soc Sec.
Ah, and if the cost of living goes up 3% or more, you get 1% less than that increase, so your $453 drops over the years in terms of buying ability.
There is a 401k matching plan for current CS employees where the Gov matches up to 5% of your salary, which, after 20 years gives you one years salary (not including whatever the individual put away.
One years salary and $453 per month is better than private sector?
I'd love to see CBO's actual machinations.