Originally Posted by
tsquare
I get what you are saying, but at the same time, a high school graduate can retire from a 20 year career in the fire department with a pretty healthy retirement package... and still be under 40. Nice gig if you can get it I guess. Those retirements are unsustainable, but for some reason the voting public thinks they are more worthy than repaying bondholders who have been defaulted on in some California cities. Good luck to them getting "investors" anymore. I recently talked to my state representative in Florida who said that Rick Scott and the state house in Florida had voted to freeze all existing pensions and any future hires would be on a 401(k) type plan (sound familiar?). But the senate would not go for that. FL has done pretty well in terms of finance, but these retirements still represent a $500 million shortfall. It has to stop.
I've been shorting Muni Bonds ... but anyhow ....
My old regional airline (who had a hell of a training Dept. BTW) ran us through the airport's fire simulator which is a whole lot less sterile than the Delta variety. I crawled through the smoke, go to the flame, could not see crap and put out my right foot.
You and I can be awfully glad we fly airplanes. Fighting fires is dirty, hot, dangerous, difficult, work.
So many morons select "fixed income" in their 401K's that the sheep are still lining up to hand money over to local pols. I read about a County in CA who had an interest only bond with a 2BN balloon at the end. Default is a certainty.