THE STORY BEHIND THE STORYWhere Has All The Money Gone?
Monday, June 19, 2023
Dorothy Philbin | CNBNews
GLOUCESTER CITY, NJ (JUNE 19, 2023)(CNBNews)--It seems that everyone, every company, city and state is filing for bankruptcy. Just this week there have been bankruptcy sales at Bye, Bye Baby, Harmon Cosmetics, Bed Bath and Beyond, and David's Bridal. They are just the companies in the Deptford Mall area.
Let's move onto cities. Just the top 10 are New York City, Chicago, Honolulu, Portland, New Orleans, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Miami. It shouldn't be any surprise that most of these cities are in trouble, they have either defunded their police departments or are being over-run by illegal immigrants.
Moving on to state pension plans. Get ready. Only two states, South Dakota and Wisconsin, have fully-funded pension plans. The other 48 states are in trouble. The most under-funded state pension plan is...you've got it. New Jersey! The next six are Illinois, Hawaii, Alaska, New Mexico, Mississippi, and Kentucky.*
Pension plans are not property rights. Think about this way, you own your home. If someone wants to legally take it away from you, he needs to go to court and have a judge approve it. You have a property right to your home; but not to your pension. Several years back the city of Detroit declared bankruptcy and along with it, their state pension plan. Naturally, all participants were angry and took the city to court. They lost. Again, a pension plan is not a property right. (Just as an aside, a teacher's tenure is a property right.)
Okay, it has been established that none of us has money. Who does? We can name Elon Musk or George Saros but who else? We don't need to go very far to find multimillionaires - no farther than Washington, DC. More than 1/2 of the collective wealth of Congress is held by only 12 members. Here are the top ten:**
Michael McCarl (R TX) $125.8 million
Darnell Issa (R CA) $115.8 million
Nern Buchanan (R FL) $113.3 million
Trey Hollingsworth (R IN) $74.6 million
Doris Materi (D CA) $73.8 million
Roger Williams (R TX) $67.4 million
Peter Meijer (R MI) $60.5 million
Suzan Del Bene (D WA) $52.1 million
Nancy Pelosi (D CA) $46.1 million
Scott Peters (D CA) $39.7 million
Each of these representatives makes $174,000 a year but they also get more than a million dollars for office and staff expenses. Who pays for travel expenses depend what the purpose of the travel.
The lesson to take away is that there is more than enough money to go around but those who have the money want more and getting it from the average taxpayer is fine by them.
* http://www.pewtrust.com (7/77/22)
** http://www.businessinsider.com (12/14/21)