Even though the unions and politicians have used the Coronovirus to extend the teachers time off, there will be less students returning to public schools and colleges. Mainly because they have found different alternatives to education.
We still believe what we have known for years – that teaching is a noble profession, and good teachers work extremely hard. But when you count their pension program and what they are paid for the 20 or 25 years that they teach, they make $4 million to $5 million in their lifetime. That’s pretty good. I wish we would pay teachers more in the beginning and a little less in their pensions, and I wish their pensions were 401k’s because they could control more of it.
Then the government wouldn’t have an open-ended hundred-trillion-dollar liability, but that will take 50 years to maneuver and incorporate and transfer.
That’s how we saved Detroit. They went from an open-ended pay-till-you-die pension plan to a 401k, and I can tell you the people retiring today are doing so with $2 million to $3 million in the bank, own their homes and are living as well or better than people who have open-ended pension plans. When you retire in Detroit, they don’t have to pay you anymore. So, it allows them to have a better balance sheet going forward.
Entitlement policies are $100 trillion to $200 trillion at least, but no one has the guts to add them up, and they don’t consider them part of our debt. Well, if you think that somebody teaching today isn’t going to be part of our national debt 30 years from now, you’re making a big mistake. And the good news is: People are living longer. But if you have $2 million or $3 million in the bank and you get to invest it at retirement at 60 years old or so, you will have one heck of a life.
