SOCIALISM FAILS YET AGAIN: NYC IN THE SAME BOAT AS EUROPE

NYTIMES:

The chief actuary, Robert C. North, has prepared a little-noticed set of alternative calculations showing that the gap in the pension funds could be as wide as $49 billion.

That is nearly the size of the city’s entire annual budget and the equivalent of the city’s publicly disclosed outstanding debt. The existence of a big gap between the city’s future obligations and the resources committed to meet them does not mean the pension funds are about to run out of money.

But it does mean that New York City is promising its current employees future benefits it might not be able to provide without big tax increases or major budget cuts. When such a reckoning might occur, if at all, is hard to predict.

Europe and NYC have social/welfare obligations that they can only solve with massive tax hikes which will destroy their economies. It's sort of a Catch 22. The ultimate answer is privatization of health and retirement benefits. Something the Left will fight to their death. SO BE IT.

The city is in other trouble:

More than a third of its population is made up of immigrants who have arrived since 1990l (most are hard-working and have helped the city's economy, in ways, but their non-assimiliation has weakened the fabric of the community). The schools suck. The streets are as dirty as ever. And crime is rising.

THE CITY MISSES RUDY. Bloomberg is a liberal and weak on crime and soft on the unions. If Rudy doesn't run for POTUS, I hope he runs for mayor again. Rudy will fight crime and cut taxes and cut spending and find a way to privatize the city's retirement obligations.