Another U.S. city mulls bankruptcy due to soaring wages and pensions

[Trillo]

13. One of my landlords was a retired cop (probation officer), he also told the same story,

in his case, it was about him, they had made it more lucrative to retire. He told this story to us while he advised us our rent was going up, because they'd cut back his health insurance (that was his story). I can't say when he said this, except it was between the years 1982 and 1998, when we rented his place. An unrelated person, our previous accountant, who had been Sheriff's reserve or something like that, said the same, that they were losing a lot of good people because under the right conditions, presumably a certain number of years, they'd make more money retired versus what they'd make if they kept working. The newspaper articles I'd read often mentioned the retirement plans of the top cop in town.

When you read these stories in the newspapers throughout the 1980s and 90s, and folks you know tell you the same thing, then it's not about talking points. The stories may no longer be true, but I'm pretty sure it was correct some time ago, for folks who are probably still alive and collecting pensions today.