<div dir="ltr">Perfectly stated.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 9:39 AM, Greg Gerritt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gerritt@mindspring.com" target="_blank">gerritt@mindspring.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div style="word-wrap:break-word;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-size:14px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><div>There is actually no way to solve the pension problem. All pension funds are predicated on achieving capital growth of 7.5% a year, and in the 21st century the only way to achieve that is by looting everything else in society to pay the pensions and the financiers. And even that is no longer working. Returns on investment are no where near 7.5% and have not been for years. </div><div><br></div><div>The assumptions that went into the modern American pension system were built in during a time when the USA held most of the world’s wealth and we were flexing post world war 2 muscles. We are no longer the economic powerhouse, everyone else has grown out around us. And the ecosystems and resource bases have been seriously harmed. IMF, World Bank, and everyone else say the long term growth rate trend is down. Rapid growth will only be in places that are seriously poor and rapidly industrializing/urbanizing and the occasional fracking boom until all the water is poisoned and the storms destroy the rigs. </div><div><br></div><div>US growth rate has been 2.2 to 2.4% for last 5 years. If returns to investments are 7.5%, everyone who does not have those investments gets poorer, which is exactly what is happening as we run the economy to meet the needs of the bonds. This then proceeds to undermine the economy further, as does the economic development policies preached by politicians and bankers in which all investment flows to jobs for the few who do not yet live here, with nothing for jobs for the people and neighborhoods that need them the most. (Oh yeah, you have been made obsolete and so we no longer even think about how to truly redevelop communities) (Gentrification as public religion?) </div><div><br></div><div>A little honesty about the impossibility of ever paying pensions properly needs to be on the table and it is not. But until they give up the fantasy of 7.5% returns that will never happen. So the pension arguments will remain a big problem and the cost to the public will increase while never coming close to solving the dilemma. </div><div><br></div><div>Greg gerritt</div><div><br></div><span><div style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt;text-align:left;color:black;BORDER-BOTTOM:medium none;BORDER-LEFT:medium none;PADDING-BOTTOM:0in;PADDING-LEFT:0in;PADDING-RIGHT:0in;BORDER-TOP:#b5c4df 1pt solid;BORDER-RIGHT:medium none;PADDING-TOP:3pt"><span style="font-weight:bold">From: </span> Emlyn Addison <<a href="mailto:noisyblocks@gmail.com" target="_blank">noisyblocks@gmail.com</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Date: </span> Wednesday, August 24, 2016 at 8:59 AM<br><span style="font-weight:bold">To: </span> Carol Cancro <<a href="mailto:cscancro@gmail.com" target="_blank">cscancro@gmail.com</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Cc: </span> Summit Neighborhood <<a href="mailto:Summit@sna.providence.ri.us" target="_blank">Summit@sna.providence.ri.us</a>><br><span style="font-weight:bold">Subject: </span> Re: [Summit] Our Fire Chief<br></div><div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div dir="ltr">Taken in context of the pensions albatross, is it any wonder why people _actually elected to office_ can't make headway. Everybody loves their gravy train.<div><br></div><div>This is how ugly it got: <a href="http://turnto10.com/news/local/providence-fire-captain-fired-grievances-costing-city-hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars" target="_blank">http://turnto10.com/news/<wbr>local/providence-fire-captain-<wbr>fired-grievances-costing-city-<wbr>hundreds-of-thousands-of-<wbr>dollars</a><br><br>One might pause to wonder how much overtime pay Mr Doughty has made in the years leading to acting fire chief.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>Emlyn</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 8:20 AM, Carol Cancro <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cscancro@gmail.com" target="_blank">cscancro@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Colonel Kilgore as his avatar--need I say more?<div><br></div><div>Carol C.</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div>On Wed, Aug 24, 2016 at 5:54 AM, Michael McGlynn <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mmcglynn@gmail.com" target="_blank">mmcglynn@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div><div dir="ltr">Sometimes folks reveal who they really are on social media. Facebook and Twitter provide a venue for casual comment not coming through official channels. <br><br>Here is some recent Twitter by Providence's fire chief.<br><br><a href="https://twitter.com/pauldoughty799" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/pauldought<wbr>y799</a><span><font color="#888888"><br clear="all"><div><br>-- <br><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Thank You,<br>Michael McGlynn<br></div></div></font></span></div><br></div></div>______________________________<wbr>_________________<br>
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SNA Website: <a href="http://sna.providence.ri.us/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">http://sna.providence.ri.us/</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">Thank You,<br>Michael McGlynn<br></div>
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