The Dirty Little Secret

I'd like to talk about what I call the dirty little secret.  It's now exactly what you might think.  I refers to how things are being handled with teachers here in California and their pensions.

What some people might not know is that it takes about Five(5) years to make tenure for most teachers.  It is also known that in many school districts they give out pink slips almost every year and turn around and hire back many if not most of those same teachers.   Why do these 2 facts really matter.   You only begin to get access to pensions when your tenured and you restart the clock every time your pink slipped.  So that means some teachers at the local school may be working in the district for 5 years but, do not have tenure.

It will known and complained about that the Pension fund for teachers and other public state workers is very underfunded.
So this 'Dirty Little Secret' is in directly helping the pension fund since you have a growing portion of teachers that have yet to qualify for access to the pension fund.  This odd gap that is being created will create what one could call a doughnut in regards to payouts.  You have the fatted stuff now and the lack there off in the future or the gaping hole in payouts.

Is this really a good thing.  Well some would say yes since it is helping the over all pension situation.  Others would say no since it really does not solve the problem of how much is being paid out it just messes with the number of people that will receive payouts. 



And think about the teachers that are doing 4-8 years of teaching and have no retirement to show for it.  They have no district sponsored 401(k) and also no pension to speak of since they keep getting put back on the merry-go round each year.  Talk about a disaster in the making.

The payout will become excessive for the few that qualify and non-existent for those that can't get there at times for no fault of their own.  Reward the one that worked the system and don't bother with the newbies.

Do you think the unions are helping any?  Not really.  They currently can get union dues from all the teachers, and claim they are fighting for them, while due to some regulations deny them access to what they also claim is right of the union employee.  They also like to use the last in first out system.   Everything is based on seniority and not quality, test scores, or any other real valuable measure.   You keep the bad one in for longer then they should be and keep putting the young highly motivated teachers on the merry-go round.

Here in California they had a proposition to make it so corporations or unions could not automatically use monies that they have taken from your pay check for political purposes without your prior consent.  Prop. 32 when down 56% to 44%.  A slight majority in favor of leaving thing alone.  So we will continue to see teachers unions take the money given them and buy off candidates even if a good chunk of the teachers don't support  that candidate.  A bummer really since it could have leveled the playing field a bit, though the negative ads did their job and got people confused as all get out. 



How then do you try and help solve the whole pension issue and in the process help the younger or newer teachers that are not eligible for the  pensions yet.  You have to get around the merry-go round or 'dirty little trick'.   You have to offer some type of 401(k) or flat retirement plan.  People in private industry overwhelmingly are put into 401(k) plans.  So why not go that route with public employees?   Why do we have to have a pension for them?   The usual system is the employee decides to have X amount taken from the pay check.  The company matches up to a certain amount.  The employee has the money invested in a somewhat limited set of mutual funds or other financial instruments.  Hopefully, the money grows over time but, bottom line the company is not on the hook for pay outs years down the road.  It's more on the head of the employee and not the pension fund.  And since most public worker pension funds back fill with government money at times you wonder how soundly the money is being invested or whether they are taking in enough in the first place.

Now think about how this system could be beneficial over all.  You could even have a 100% match and come out ahead.  Instead of having to pay out a teacher that retires at say 55 with a set amount for the rest of forever.  If that person lives to 90 you'll have 35 years of payouts.  The 100% match would be progressive since it would be lower as the teacher starts out and then gets bigger as pay raises.  This is better then the fixed higher rate down the road that traditional pensions provide.  You do have to handle the health care portion of the equation.  This means that if you go with the 401(k) system you have to have the people paying into medicare and the like or compensate for it in some way.

Here are some simple numbers:
start pay 40k annual
end pay 75k annual
30 years work - so pension would be forking over ~70-80% of final pay i.e 55k.  Take that over another 35 years of payout.

Pay per pension over 35 years - $1,925,000
Average pay 30 years work - 57k if you did the 100% match - $1,710,000.

Seems like peanuts but, when you add this all up it can count for millions upon millions.



Most people go with the higher contribution by the participant of the pension.  But, are the people being stiffed by the 'dirty little secret' pay in as well?  If so they really are being stiffed on a massive scale.


So how do we save money in the long haul and also help out those being hit by the 'dirty little secret'?  Likely a investment system where the worker takes on more control and the decision making.

And hopefully the worker will make good choices, which you can not guarantee will occur with the current system and a bureaucrat handling things.



Buaidh - NO - Bas

Pioneer Day

July 24th is celebrated as Pioneer Day in Utah.  Maybe even locations in Idaho, and Arizona.  The reason this day is celebrated is this marks when the first group of Mormon Pioneers reached the Valley of the Great Salt Lake. That is why I'm not sure if the largely Mormon communities in locations like Arizona or Idaho also celebrate this event.

As many may know the Saints were pushed out of Nauvoo Illinois and eventually over several months made their way across the plains through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and finally ended at the Salt Lake Valley.  Brigham Young as he saw the valley on the rise just before descending into the valley "This is the Right Place, carry on".  He'd seen it in vision and knew this was the place that the Saints would be able to prosper and thrive.

Strangely the route they was used matched much of what could be the Oregon trail and/or the California trail. 
It appears that the Oregon trail was used slightly earlier then when the Mormons first crossed in 1847.  One way or the other this trek that they took was thousands of miles and not all that easy.  Whether is was undertaken by wagon train or hand carts it was long, exhausting and perilous.  There were presumed threats of Indians attacking, disease and sickness that could be had, issues with wild animals, and then the age old lack of food and water since the journey was taking so long.  All this made sure that those that arrived at the final destination were hardy folks.  The faint in heart, the sickly and invalid did not usually make it the whole way on the journey.

There is very good movie that was made recently that highlights the hardships of taking this crossing and exemplifies why we celebrate Pioneer Day.  17 Miracles is an amazing film about the hand cart companies that came across to Salt Lake in part as a solution to the lack of funds available to members of said companies.

Though it includes some information from multiple hand cart companies and is not necessarily in chronological order it is one of the best films I have seen that show the overall sacrifice that was necessary to make the trek west.
Yes the movie can be said to have a bit of a LDS slant since it does cover the Mormon Pioneers nevertheless, you can get a sense of what life was like back then.  We may not complain of sitting in a car for hours to get to our destination.  How about 3-4 days to cover the same distance with no good source of water or food the whole distance.

 This whole topic of the Pioneers basically covering  the 1840's through to the 1880's is very fascinating.  The beginnings of new technologies.  The vast logistics involved.  The crossing of a vast unknown continent etc.





One of the best book over all that explains in a more or less easy fashion not boring with to many details but, not lacking on content is the following book.  It covers all the essential elements of the Pioneer experience and has it broken down into sections like - Making camp, on the trail etc.  Very much worth the money. It works well for adults and children.


  Want to see some programming on the commemoration of Pioneer day?  I've included some links below to great content including the Annual presentation by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Can not get much better then that.

We all Share Pioneer Legacy - Elder Uchtdorf

http://www.lds.org/pages/modern-day-pioneers?lang=eng


2012 Pioneer Day Concert - Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Friends

http://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/pioneer-day-concert/2012/07?lang=eng&vid=1747398845001

 

Celebrate the Pioneers in your past or those that are current pioneers.  There may be more out there then you think.

Buaidh - NO - Bas

1984 and the Modern Digital Age

I just got done watching the movie Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) based on George Orwell's Book by the same name.  The version I watched is the one filmed in 1984 featuring Richard Burton.  There is an older version available from the 50's that appears the Orwell family did not like.  This version seems to stick with the tone of the book quite heavily and is very creepy in some respects.

It's creepy in the respect that you wonder how someone falls into a society of that style (bland, controlled, lacking individualism, etc).
The same question must be asked of Nazi society in the 1930's and 40's.   How can someone fall into or accept what is happening around them so readily?







It appears the whole of it is based on Propaganda, brainwashing and the controlling of thoughts, actions, and available information.






 
So in the movie you see a lot of constant propaganda to the populous.  They have tons of messages in the eating areas and the like that tout how well things are going.  How this measure of productivity has increased or how the infant mortality rate is lower etc.  And the whole time you see everything in such a grey ton, a bland, lifeless, faceless society.  Everything is so dismal, and lifeless.  Even the people are in a sense lifeless.  Just kind of getting through life.  Then there is the ever present screens with party information, pictures of "Big Brother", and similar things that fill ones head with the idea of the great state.  The worst is the constant stream of people confessing their "Sins" to the world and the error of their ways.  This helps to reinforce the mentality of oneness, of sameness, and ultimately makes you afraid of what your neighbor may be thinking or doing.  Again a tool to help make sure people turn in anyone that is different or not going along with the program.

This is how the system works.  Keep the people in fear and always have a constant enemy.  Thus people will turn on one another, to save their hides if need be.  In the film you are always hearing about the mega war going on.  This gives everyone a goal, something to fear, and a reason for being.  In so much as they are constantly rewriting history, making up stats and basically feeding a line to the populous that has been brainwashed to think that their miserable existence is actually improving.








Another scary book/film is Fahrenheit 451.  Instead of rewriting history to what they want it to read, or making it fit their agenda, history is destroyed.  They burn all books.  They control the people via television like devices in every home.  Free thinking is more or less banned.  Subliminal messages and propaganda is feed to you everyday.  Firemen are not designated to put out fires, but to create them.

Because of the control you get to the point you feel you can't talk about your opinions.  Under fear that you may say something that is not acceptable. Thus you keep quiet.

Under these two forms or systems of government and society you would find that all talk radio would cease to exist.  People like the John & Ken Show in Los Angeles and all their rabble rousing would go away.  Being informed so you can keep things like excessive taxes down, have government stop wasting money on dead end project (high speed rail, bridge to no where, toll express lanes, etc), and electing better candidates would stop.  You'd find it harder and harder to stay informed.  You would be spoon feed things that would help the candidate in office.  And if no term limited were present you have a type of upper crust oligarchy akin to a monarchy.  Fact checking would be next to no existent as well.  Imagine if all you got was wikipedia.org articles but, they never had any of the references at the bottom of the page, let alone comments that more sources are needed, or the such.  Blogs of all sorts could be become fact no matter how bad they are, or non-factual.  it would be like backwards day every day of the week.  Black would be white, white would be black and 4 fingers would really be 5 no matter how hard you look at them.





I vote to keep our open informed society.   Do not blindly follow.  Do not just take the candidates word for it even if he is from your church or religion or hometown.  They all may be doing the little dance.  The say what works here and what works for that audience.  Then in the end try to please everyone and thus no one all the same.


Hopefully as we digitize more and more we do not put ourselves down this slipper slope.  Imagine how it would be if your books were revised without our consent via our digital E-readers (Nook, Kindle, etc).  it could get to the point that the rewriting of history like in 1984 could happen so easily and we may not even notice it.
A very scary thought indeed.  Slow just slowly things change and then boom a few years down the road what was not accepted then is accepted now.  And if a minority pushes hard enough on something then they start to get heard.  Take Gay Marriage for example.  In California for example we passed prop 8 to define marriage as between a man and a woman.  Very simple.  But the minority group has fought like crazy to have this over turned.  They kick and scream and do their little dance.  And people begin to feel pity for them.  Things unfortunately will change, thus the other side has to get its message out too.  For if we don't sooner then later things will have been changed and we will wonder when it happened.  Likely while we were asleep.


This goes for your religion as well.  God does not want you to blindly accept what you are told.  He want you to put him to the test.  Have a surety of the truth of the Gospel.  If you can't say you have that then maybe you need to put him to the test.


4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ^aask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not ^btrue; and if ye shall ask with a ^csincere heart, with ^dreal intent, having ^efaith in Christ, he will ^fmanifest the ^gtruth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

 5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may ^aknow the ^btruth of all things.

 6 And whatsoever thing is good is just and true; wherefore, nothing that is good denieth the Christ, but acknowledgeth that he is.

 7 And ye may ^aknow that he is, by the power of the Holy Ghost; wherefore I would exhort you that ye deny not the power of God; for he worketh by power, ^baccording to the faith of the children of men, the same today and tomorrow, and forever.

Moroni 10:4-7

Keep truth Alive!

Buaidh - NO - Bas