Morning letters: Union pensions at the crux of election conflicts

In this Jan 25, 2012 file photo, protestors show off signs in the rotunda of the State Capitol Wisconsin prior to Gov. Scott Walker's state of the state address in Madison, Wis. (AP Photo/Andy Manis)

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Bruce Crawford: Letter-writer William J. Brennan can play class warfare with the shallowest of class-warfare mongers [?The real ?hunger games,'? Letters, June 7]. Brennan says, ?Voters have declared war on labor? and then tries to bolster his Marxist argument with non sequiturs. Voters have declared war on the outrageous public-employee pensions. But that?s got nothing to do with how much an average employee makes compared to an S&P CEO.

All pension systems are wealth-transfer Ponzi schemes. I dare say there is not one pension system, public or private, where 100 percent of the pensioners? benefits are paid for by wealth he or she created while gainfully employed. Not any. That means pension benefits are paid for by others. The wealth created by the fruits of the labor of those others is expropriated from their wages to be paid to someone no longer working, no longer creating wealth. That?s not fair; that?s not right.

In other words today?s workers? wages are reduced to pay today?s pensioner. But public employee pension plans are more egregious in this regard than private ones, even though both are unsustainable over the long haul.

When the shareholders of a private company agree to establish a pension plan, they do so with their own capital. When legislators, county supervisors, city council members and school board trustees set generous pension benefits for public employees, they do so with other people?s capital. And those other people, i.e., taxpayers, are fed up with this conflict-of-interest scheme.

We have a 13th Amendment, which proscribes slavery. When one is living off the fruits of another?s labor, one is enslaving that person. So pension plans are wrong on at least two levels. One, slavery is evil, even when legal. Two, they are mathematically unsustainable.

Finally, what the owners of a company choose to pay their CEOs has nothing whatsoever to do with pension plans or labor, public or private.

Owners, i.e., shareholders, pay their CEOs based upon expectations of what the CEO will do to increase their own wealth as it translates into share values. They choose to give up part of their quarterly dividends and share market value in exchange for the multiplier effect the CEO will have on future dividends and share values. They make this volitional choice with their own money.

Targeting those smokers

LAKE FOREST, Frank Ritschel: Letter-writer Stacy Alynn must really be searching very hard to find that smoke in her eyes [?The smoke in my eyes,? June 8].

I guess she does not realize that just about everywhere you go, smoking is banned, including indoor places and many outdoor areas as well. I guess she just likes hanging around smokers.

Although I am not a smoker, I am very happy with the $800 million-plus in taxes they generate yearly. I do not want them buying their cigarettes from the black market or in other states, so I voted ?No? on the tax.

I guess we can have a ?fat? tax (on the overweight) to make up for the cigarette tax in case cigarettes are completely banned in California, which it seems like what Alynn wants.

What ?democracy? does?

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Patricia Frangente: I really fear for my country. As a retired teacher, I watched the teachers? union join the other public unions in trying to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after he did what he promised to do prior to his election. I watched them go to the streets, chanting, ?This is what a democracy does.?

The press recounted how they took their students to vote ? students who really did not understand what their votes meant ? only that their teachers wanted their support. Then we hear of the union goons threatening the lives of Walker and his family after the unions? defeat. Now, I ask the unions, ?Is this really what a democracy does??

I am truly disappointed with many of my fellow teachers in this nation.

Strike down Obamacare

MISSION VIEJO, Sheila Herman: I pray the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Obamacare. The law will force people to perform abortions. This is totally different from the abortion debate.

If the federal government provides nearly all health care in the country ? including religious hospitals ? there will be nowhere to work if a person doesn?t want to perform abortions. Both men and women could object.

Who? Not just those who support the Right to Life movement, or medical staff who choose to work in religious hospitals. People with infertility issues don?t want to have to perform abortions and people who have lost a child or women saddened by a miscarriage wouldn?t want to do so either.

Even if a person thinks they?re OK with performing abortions that opinion can change over time or as a result of certain life events. Imagine being forced to perform a late-term abortion or find another profession. It sickens me to think that a health care provider ? more-caring persons on average ? would have to face this. Think this couldn?t happen? Why?

Right now Roman Catholic bishops are suing the Obama administration over being forced to allow abortions in Catholic hospitals. Wait until this sinks in. More people need to wake up and consider the consequences of this mandated abomination.

Carpools and tolls

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, George W. Zeissner: Well, I am so shocked that our government would choose to allow paying folks to use the carpool lanes [?Carpool lanes to go FasTrak,? Local, June 8].

I have always argued that once the government establishes itself in any area it will search for ways to increase that area?s activities to raise more money for the government to spend. We have the toll-lane mechanisms and its associated management tribes in place so why not add to their dominion and raise more revenue?

This turn of events is no surprise to me. I have always said that as carpool lanes became established and connected they would assume a role of toll lanes.

The fundraising fury

ANAHEIM, Linda Helms: It is disheartening for me to hear that $78 million and $60 million have been donated to the campaigns of our future presidents. I am sure much more has been donated to other politicians running for office.

What a waste of our resources when that amount could be donated to causes that will help our children and grandchildren in the future; causes like helping with scholarships for education so our youngsters are not saddled with tremendous debt when graduating from college, or helping our military re-enter into the work world or helping keep seniors in their homes.

The money we have paid to politicians has not helped correct any of these issues.

______

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Tom Chapman: Regarding complaints that the president spends too much time fundraising: I really can?t take those complaints seriously from anybody in the political party that rejects campaign finance reform and supports the corrosive propositions that corporations are people, money is speech and unlimited, anonymous contributions under the Supreme Court?s ?Citizens United? blunder is a good thing.

Thanks to Republicans, money has become central to our political process.

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