Tuesday, June 20, 2006

KY Pension Collapse: Will Money Meet Mouth?

The Delta Airlines Pilot Pension collapse isn't going to get as much run in the media as anything potentially embarrassing to Republicans. The reason is defined-benefit pensions are designed much like Social Security.

Remember the "there is no crisis" rants from the left last year? By now, all honest economists agree that was an expensive distortion then and it is only getting worse.

Well I have an idea how to get past the smokescreen on this. Kentucky's public employee pensions are headed for a Delta-like disaster. If we gave all employees in the system the opportunity to opt out in favor of a defined contribution plan, we could wait and see just how many were willing to gamble their retirement security on what is left of the old economic ideology.

Now that would be a sight to behold...