The issue here at hand is whether Bill is somehow deficient for accepting the pension provided to him by the terms of his employment as a teacher. IMHO what I'm about to say applies to everyone who works/has worked for the government.
Who among us would turn down an increase in employment compensation? None of us, or damn few, that is for sure. Frankly, in my view it is an obligation for each of us to provide the best possible support for our families and that is all that any teacher has done....got the best deal he could. Any beef one may have with a teacher's wages and benefits package is to be shooting the messenger, so to speak.
The problem lies with the white males who have dominated the political scene for the last 60 years. It is those elected officials who caved to the union demands, who struck unaffordable bargains. It not the microcosm of corrupt black democrats in Detoit who are to blame. it is all the voters and all the elected officials on both sides of the fence who allowed this foolishness to take root. We are now, as nations, paying the price for this idiocy.
But in no way can a man like Bill be faulted. As a young man, he choose what should be an honorable and valued profession, teaching our children. Pretty sure, as the years passed, he didn't make the rules. He probably did get to vote on them every for or five years, but he wasn't cutting the deals. He should take the money and feel just fine about it.
Ken, of all the people posting on this site, and elsewhere, you have, IMHO, relatively accurately nailed the problem. It is a belief system that has been fostered. The problem lies not with just the democrats but with both parties. The rise of the Tea Party reflects this. Disgust with the power for power sake nature that politics has become. King calls it a punk's game and he's right. My choice to vote for the conservative candidates is simply a usually misplaced hope they will expand government more slowly than the alternatives.
But you all make a giant error in reasoning by blaming those on the teat. Would we blame a calf! No we expect that from it. We should be blaming the supplier of the milk!
