There are times when it seems like the America I grew up with is fading fast, if it ever existed. Now we learn that what were considered the safest of pensions are not, and the government hasn't the money to back them up as they promised they would. Real people will suffer because of this.

It's here, in this article from the NY Times today: http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/04/12/thought-secure-pooled-pensions-teeter-and-fall/?hp

Well...if it isn't something, it's something else.

Well...if it isn't something, it's something else.

Increasingly true, I find.

"A thing is what it is, and not something else."

Wittgenstein

Detroit civil servants may see that they will not be losing their pensions after all. To me, that's good. I understand that some begrudge civil servants any compensation, but a promise is a promise. In order to bargain for pension benefits, they gave up other benefits. All part of what's called negotiations. Each side gives a little here, takes a little there. You don't agree to it and then renege after you have had the benefit of their service.