Live by the original Golden Rule
Sadly, The Golden Rule has been redefined. “Do unto others” has been perverted to “He/She who hath the Gold Rules!” We’ve inverted our morality.
He/She who hath the Gold gets our officials elected. Once elected, our governing body covets our Gold (taxes), then acts like they’re doing us favors by returning half of it in services they presume we need. After all, that’s why we elected them, right?
The current Legislature insults us by assuming we don’t have the brains to plan our retirement and need to fund a system to require private employers to provide us a retirement savings program. That may be so, but for our senators and representatives to assume our incompetence is insulting. The State of Hawaii will fund the administration of that system, thank you very much.
Remember the do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Well, now we can assume they don’t have the brains to manage their own retirement system. The Hawaii Employee Retirement System happens to be about $24 BILLION underfunded. That amounts to about $20,000 per every resident of the State of Hawaii. It also amounts to about $200,000 per ERS Beneficiary.
Now, looking around the world, remember what happened when Greek pensioners were required to take a benefit reduction to remain part of the European Union? All hell broke loose! What do you think will happen when retired police and firefighters are asked to give up their family medical coverage?
The Legislature is doing the same to our Department of Education. The lack of respect of the professional educators is evident in the leg’s manipulation of the Department of Education budget request. DOE is comprised of professional educators. Very FEW of our senators and representatives are trained educators. The Gold elects them, and our Gold lets them dole out their favors. Our kids are short-changed.
It’s time to return respect to our families, society, schools and government. Consider returning our values to the original Golden Rule. Respect others as yourself. Assume competence, especially of those responsible for educating our children.
Michael Curtis, Koloa
Then why run for county council or mayor? Not bad. The system is automated. But they covet our votes anyway. Why? This is the oldest profession, they want something in return. Fame. Popularity. Votes. Means Power. That is how they make their money. Not in a capitalist economy though.
Or Ross Kagawa can’t write. So he’s dumb. No power to him. No money. I am referring to Mr. Mickens letter. Most recently.
I’ve got news for you. Statistics show that very few folks have the means, self-discipline, or general knowledge to adequately plan for retirement, unfortunately. If it wasn’t for the socialist program called “Social Security” founded in 1935 following the great depression, many more folks would be broke and homeless in their senior years. However, I think the best way to proceed would to make these private employment plans voluntary but available to those who chose to enroll.
I agree with the principle of “The Golden Rule ” and there is some truth in saying that the actions of the present Hawaii legislators is insulting to the intelligence of the people….. consider this, The Teachers are all in support as are the majority of my fellow Ordained Minister friends. The International community is becoming aware of the unlawful occupation of the Hawai’ian Kingdom and we need a REDO OF THE ENTIRE SYSTEM….
HAWAIIANKINGDOM.ORG
Few want to hear “The Truth”……so here ya go….
Social Security is a pyramid scheme created because most people do not, can’t, or are unwilling to sacrifice for their non-working years. You get less than 1% return on all those thousands of dollars taken out of your paycheck each year. And wait for it…..if you die the day before collecting a dime, all the thousands of dollars you contributed over a lifetime GOES BACK TO THE GOVERNMENT. You have a lifetime to save for your “Golden Years”, yet very, very, very few actually do it. Social Security is not a retirement program….it was designed to supplement your lifetime savings. SMH.
Government Pensions should be eliminated. All new hires should be on a 401K with the Government chipping in a percentage of contributions each year. I have no idea why the general public has not held their elected officials to task on this issue. These pensions will bankrupt the State and hinder any kind of real progress for the State. Stop the madness!…end lifetime Government Pensions.
The Hawaii ERS is doing just fine. Please stop inaccurately repeating right wing Grassroots reports and performing Paul Revere or Chicken Little stunts like this. Not to do actual research on how the system works or how it’s been working just fine these past ten years makes you look like an idiot!