Class Diary: Massachusetts Teachers Take a Hit

As of November 15th, Massachusetts lawmakers approved a bill to "reform" pensions of state employees. Under this bill, the minimum age of retirement was increased from 55 years old to 60 years old. It is ironic how this bill was voted on by Senators and House Representatives who make upwards of $174,000 a year, not the actual state employees. It is easy to cut salaries or to increase pension age of others when it does not directly affect those voting on the bill. It is sickening that our nation is hurting the lives of our educators, construction workers, and law enforcement professionals in order to save $5 billion in THIRTY years. However, it is completely "reasonable" to spend $803 BILLION on the war in Iraq and $475 BILLION on the war in Afghanistan equaling $1 TRILLION according to costofwar.com This means that if we didn't have the war, we would save 200 times the cost of what we would save in the thirty years of pension reform for Massachusetts. With 50 states, each state could have $20 billion each. Seems like we should be cutting other areas than those of government employees... We can cut from those in the working and middle class, but not from those holding the majority of our nations money or from the war that is draining our economy. Talk about cycling class!