This 2018 documentary investigates the role of state governments and Wall Street in driving America’s public pensions into a multi-trillion-dollar hole.
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Producers Marcela Gaviria and Nick Verbitsky and correspondent Martin Smith trace how state governments have withheld pension contributions to cover shortfalls and waged risky bets on Wall Street. Smith goes inside the volatile fight over pensions in Kentucky, a state whose once-flush pension system for its police, firefighters, teachers and other public workers became one of the worst-funded in the nation.
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Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.
Guarantee the elected officials are going to be taken care of in their pension system……….
Well then where does the ky lottery money go , because I thought it was for schools and roads
Social Security paid for space shuttles and submarines. The PROBLEM is people's money was TOUCHED. 😢 It should be a SAVINGS, versus investment.
And most of them vote for tRump! Soooooo fuck'em!
Granted
You offer a pension you pay up but you are still responsible
My mother in law taught 40+ years in Ga – not known for high pay
Her estate outside of outside investment was $4.5 million
You deserve what you earn
Same story as social security
Crooked politicians buying votes with your supplement retirement
Why are people surprised? This is what MAGA idiots voted for, total corruption, cut all benefits people are entitled to, anything to lower taxes for billionaires. Stop complaining if you were dumb enough to vote Trump.
The defined pension plan will never come back to Kentucky. Too bad. People just don't have the fiscal discipline to make 401 plans work.
It's interesting that we allow people to make decisions that they will not be affected by. Someone who isn't a janitor, teacher, or firefighter and DOES NOT know any personally was allowed to make decisions for and about people who are.
That man's salary didn't change either way, so of course he didn't gaf.
Break it. So you can run on a promise to fix what you broke .
This propoganda piece is totally wrong. If you have a pension managers control the pension but if you have a 401k you control your money. According to Fidelity half a million people became 401k millionaires this year. At the current rate by the earily 2030s there will be 1 million new 401k millionaires a year. Just invest in dividends and equities and the compound interest (Albert Enstein said the most powerful force on earth is compound interest) will make you a millionaire. I retired as a machinist and I am one of them.
Kentucky politicians did not "divert" money from pensions, they STOLE it!!! As stated, they were morally obligated to fund pensions, but they didn't care about morals.
I just liquidated my state retirement from a job I had years ago. It was earning money with no additional contributions. It wasn't much, but it helped to pay what i need now vs thinking I might get this money when I need it. Small tax dues now, but peace of mind is more important. I don't trust any of them.
That's why stuff like Ukraine and USAID should be cut along with most military spending
0:26
Life’s ant Fair ? If your Elected Leaders hadn’t kicked the can down the road and made adjustments You’d Be OK ? Government does not Employ Actuaries – They doodle over Polls ! 😤
its like the preamble with the social security money… lets take it directly out they check… put it in the general fund… then when they need they money… I guess they will just be screwed…mama didn't raise no fool that's a grift or some kinda robbery.
No sympathy. Most of these people did the absolute minimum to keep their jobs.
This reminds me of something my accounting professor said once in class. "If you commit a large enough crime, no one will go to prison because the victims will be so embarrassed it happened to them, they won't want anyone to know, so they will not prosecute or admit the failure."
I mean their going after military pension. Why would anyone else be safe?
The republicans motto is rip those sucker hicks for as much money as they can . 😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
These republican controlled rascist states rip off their people but the voters continue to keep them in office and they keep getting ripped off. You have to laugh at these rascist hicks.
Republicans keep rapping the workers money off. But they keep voting for them .So keep rapping them they love it.😅😅😅😅😅😅😅
It's funny that all of the states who ripped off people's pensions are run by corrupt republicans. Keep ripping them off they love it.😅😅😅😅😅
So they robbed the people that payed into their retirement.
FATEMA akther maya Dhaka Bangladesh chand pur forid gonj gridakalindia
I don’t know why you have to be an expert in finance to understand that having thousands of people pay into a pension and then stealing that money on the back end is FRAUD! Dear God I hate this country.
Newsflash: teachers gave up after their summer vacations started.
You think Kentucky is in trouble, Illinois is in the worst shape
Ohio hires investment trained people to invest funds and pays bonuses when they do well. People without investment experience do not make decisions in Ohio pension funds.
Ohio never raided pension funds and made changes such as raising retirement age to keep funds solvent.
If they would cut the standardized testing funding they may be able to fund pensions. Too much money and emphasis placed on TESTING.
This is the main reason why we should never have public unions with pensions. In 2003 the trucking company I still work for stopped the pension they were paying into because they no longer could afford it, so when I retire after 30 years, I will receive $160 a month. And for someone to sit there and say the state is morally obligated, that is wrong. I understand it will be devastating, because that is not what you signed up for, but same thing happened to me in the private sector. Who gets healthcare benefits after 20 years of service, that is ridiculous.
🥴There was NO full debate. Teachers were not even present to self- represent. Absolutely DISGUSTING! Teachers without financial power. Politicians screw the people all the time with these so called rush to vote on their BILLS with hidden agendas, thus taking advantage of the people. Politicians should not receive any retirement benefits when they retire. Maybe that would help them to retain some type of integrity when voting on compromised bills.😮
No one's retirement plan is ever guaranteed, especially when you trust the 'so-called experts' to invest YOUR MONEY.
Teachers are becoming terrorists. We cannot simply keep raising taxes. The government needs to learn to say no just as parents need to say no.
There are no People of Color in Kentucky to interview besides the ONE woman at the race track. I thought White people were the smartest human beings on the planet, intellectually superior to all other people, God fearing, the MAGA saviors. Explain please. I thought immigrants were America’s problem? Did immigrants raid the pension fund? I thought People of Color were the only criminals? This documentary is a sea of White men responsible. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔
Thank goodness America has such an intelligent, honourable and wise president to guide the country in the years ahead.
I learned in the last 17 years most promises from these institutions are all fake sand castles;; take a look at Michael Moore documentary psicko+ ( all health insurances are scams)
Having followed the activities of the Chicago/Illinois teacher's union for decades, I can say that I have never seen a larger group of highly educated dumb people
As long as public service pension plans are allowed to ignore the laws that regulate private pensions, they are always going to be a problem. My pension, from IBEW has to be funded to a minimum amount by law. So, at times when we drop below 95%, we increase the deductions and reduce the matching funds in order to create an influx of new cash to cover the unfunded portion of the pension fund. Once the fund recovers, we return to the "normal" contribution rates. Public/State pensions are not required to maintain minimum standards and the state government can reapportion pensions funds for other budgetary needs almost at their whim. It is ridiculous and one of the main reasons so many states have massive unfunded pension shortfalls.
If you think Kentucky is bad, take a look at Illinois. We have the least funded state pension, barely over 50% with a $200+ billion shortfall. With an annual revenue of just over $50 billion, that means if we took every bit of tax revenue and applied it to the pension plan, it would take four years to make up the shortfall, and that means not paying anything else a dime. In comparison, California which is the only state that is even remotely close to Illinois in total shortfall ($300 billion) has annual tax revenue of move than $280 billion. They could pay off their shortfall in just over a year. Just goes to show how absolutely terrible Illinois economics really is. If you live here are are not looking at moving out of state, you have lost your mind.
Government is not the answer. Government is the entire problem.
Looks like all that damn Kentucky Derby horse 🎠money, could fund state employees pension system 100x over 💯!!!