@ISIDEWITHQuestionseconomyStarted 12yrs agoActive 1 day ago

Should pension plans for federal, state, and local government workers be transitioned into privately managed accounts?

The average retired federal employee receives a pension (retirement plan) of $32,824 annually. Total unfunded pension liability for all U.S. cities and counties is an estimated $574 billion. In addition to their pensions, federal employees are offered a 401(k) plus 5% matching, whereas the average private employee is offered 3 percent matching of 401(k) without pension.

Answer Overview

Response rates from 85.1k Missouri voters.

55%
Yes
45%
No
43%
Yes
39%
No
7%
Yes, but only for future workers
7%
No, privately managed accounts will jeopardize the financial security of senior citizens
5%
Yes, pension spending is out of control and must be reduced

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Other Popular Answers

Unique answers from Missouri voters whose views went beyond the provided options.

 @cryingleftist from Texas  answered…5yrs5Y

It should be up to the worker in question whether they'd like to or not.

 @52P5M5Sanswered…5yrs5Y

I think it should the be workers choice but give incentives for private accounts and insure that the worker will not lose any money if they choose to privatizetheir pension plan.

 @8GPQNKC from New Mexico  answered…5yrs5Y

That should be up to the government worker

 @7Z65922 from Georgia  answered…5yrs5Y

No, but I think it should be the workers' choice, therefore give incentives for private accounts and insure that the worker will not lose any money if they chooses to privatize their pension plan

 @975GXH8 from North Carolina  answered…3yrs3Y

If the government worker wants the plan to be transitioned to a private account that should be allowed.

 @8D7J9N3 from Virginia  answered…5yrs5Y

Yes, subject to the worker's discretion

 @8GY6QN3 from Illinois  answered…5yrs5Y

Yes because government employees should have to budget for their future like everyone else does.

 @B5WMMJV from Texas  answered…2wks2W

i think the government shouldn't be allowed to keep their pensions...i think they crammed 401(k)s down our throat and called them great and said they were better than pensions and now the government should put their money where their mouth is and give up pensions for 401(k) plans

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…8mos8MO

Death, Denial, and Silence: Inside China’s Push to Bury Zhuhai’s Devastating SUV Attack

Outside the sports center in the southern city of Zhuhai where a 62-year-old man had plowed an S.U.V. into a crowd, killing at least 35 people, workers on Wednesday quickly removed bouquets of flowers left by grieving residents. Uniformed police officers and officials in plainclothes shooed away bystanders and warned them not to take photos. At hospitals where patients were taken after the attack — at least 43 more people were injured — local officials sat outside the intensive care units, blocking journalists from speaking with family members.On the Chinese internet, censors were mobilized to delete videos, news articles and commentaries about the attack. Almost 24 hours had passed before officials divulged details about the assault, which happened on Monday, including the death toll. Their statement offered limited details, and they have held no news conferences.The response was a precise enactment of the Chinese government’s usual playbook after mass tragedies: Prevent any nonofficial voices, including eyewitnesses and survivors, from speaking about the event. Spread assurances of stability. Minimize public displays of grief.The goal is to stifle potential questions and criticism of the authorities, and force the public to move on as quickly as possible. And to a large degree, it appeared to be working.Though many residents of Zhuhai, the city of 2.4 million where the attack happened, were clearly shaken, they said on Wednesday they had not questioned the delay in information, attributing it to the government’s need to first sort out what had happened. A steady stream of people arrived by foot or taxi to lay flowers at the sports center’s entrance, but when officials took away the flowers and told the people not to linger, they quickly complied.Local governments have also vowed in recent months to spend more time screening for people who have experienced “failures,” after a spate of violent attacks, including several cases in which schoolchildren were stabbed.But officials were also clearly on the lookout for any deeper scrutiny of the Zhuhai killings. Videos and photos of the scene of the attack showed only as grayed-out squares on Weibo, a social media platform. Blog posts urging people not to treat violent attacks as isolated incidents, but rather to look deeper for potential social causes, disappeared.

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 @ISIDEWITH submitted…10mos10MO

Israel Missile Strike Kills 5 U.S. Aid Workers

The Israeli military fired a missile, killing five people in the lead vehicle of an aid convoy in Gaza that it claimed had been hijacked by militants.The military also said it killed a top Hamas commander and two other fighters Friday as its large-scale operations in the West Bank continued into a third day.The D.C.-based nonprofit that organized the convoy, American Near East Refugee Aid, known as Anera, described it as a “shocking incident” in a statement Friday and said that those killed were from a local transportation company. It was urgently seeking more details about the incident.The convoy had been delivering medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah, Palestine Country Director Sandra Rasheed said in the statement to The Washington Post, and its route was coordinated with the Israel Defense Forces.Thursday’s incident is one of several such attacks this week. In remarks to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, the U.S. representative, Robert Wood, referred to an incident that occurred Sunday, according to U.N. officials, in which he said the IDF fired toward a UNICEF vehicle.On Tuesday, at least 10 rounds were fired into a World Food Program vehicle, which the United Nations blamed on Israel and prompted WFP to temporarily suspend staff movement across Gaza. Wood said the Biden administration was “deeply alarmed” by Tuesday’s shooting and urged Israel to “immediately rectify the issues within their system that allowed this to happen.”

▲  168 replies