£200M wiped from Kent pension funds should we worry?
YES
This week's frontpage story in the 'Kent on Sunday' newspaper, concerns itself with worries over stock market falls, which have temporarily reduced the value of the Kent county's pension funds.
Another frequent story that is regularly, in our newspapers is how many people do not make provision for their future, I just wonder whether the two are related. Most public employees are well paid and in addition they have secure jobs with pension benefits which are unobtainable in the normal commercial world.
I honestly wonder, whether it isn't time that the conservative party, reviewed this nonsense whereby those employed in the commercial sector, have to pay a disproportionate amount of their taxes to featherbed vast numbers of public employees, who have unparalleled job security, surely it cannot be right for someone like me, whose job is with an employment agency (meaning your employed on a daily basis), to subsidise vast pensions for fat cats in Kent's bureaucracy or even for that matter those on good pay such as police.
Perhaps the labour party could bring up the level of basic state pension, for those like me who paid considerable amounts of taxation and therefore are being gradually impoverished, by those in undemanding public sector employment.
Anyway maybe we should worry about the value of Kent's pension funds being eroded since who's gonna be making up the shortfall, I'm fairly sure it won't be Kent's employees, I'll just have to dig deeper I suppose into my own income.
Perhaps one day, politicians will wake up to the fact that the public sector is becoming unsustainable, I think if the public delve into where their money's going, they would find that perhaps upwards of a third of their tax is paying for someone else's pension.
Tony
ReplyDeletePerhaps I've been asleep for a few years but I did rather think that the whole question of a bloated and unsustainable public sector budget was a fundamental concern of Conservatism!
You may or may not have noticed Simon, but Kent is run by conservatives and surprise surprise, the chief executive of the county is the highest paid in the country.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately you are probably more likely to find, conservatives in senior positions, therefore your party is hardly likely to start paying these people what they are actually worth.
Also since public employees are politicised in a way that the general public is not, it's unlikely that any of our the spineless political parties will ever take these people on.
This country is becoming less democratic by the minute, and political parties of all persuasions have had their part in creating quangos and non democratic organizations that bypass any normal idea of democracy.
Unfortunately this country is riddled with political patronage and is probably as corrupt as any banana Republic, the main difference being the weather.
Much of what you say is true Tony and "Quangos" have grown like a plague over the last ten years. The Conservative Party is committed to a thinner-style of government but you can't blame the Conservative party for public sector salaries, this is a Guardian Jobs page and central government issue.
ReplyDeletePubic Sector Salaries? You mean people at the top or those in an office on a basic of £12,000 p.a? Those at the top get paid well to encourage the right people for the right job, same as in private commerce and industry.
ReplyDelete