The morons who run the CTA have brought an issue to the forefront that's been bothering me, um, all my adult life. That is the concept of pensions. To me, a pension is a retirement benefit that has never been available to me, will never be available to me and has been replaced by other retirement benefits like the 401k. At every job I've ever had, pensions are mentioned with a hiring end date--usually "...for employees hired before 1985, the pension plan..." My simplistic view is that pensions are mucho expensive for an employer to fund, so the Republican administrations of the 1980's created funds that shifted the risk and responsibility away from employers to employees.

Yeah, how about that 401k? What a great benefit, huh? Sure, as long as the stock market doesn't lay an egg. Oops, there's another egg! Gotta work until 70 now--oh, joy!

Anyway, with all the talk about the CTA board raising their own pensions, I started to wonder how many working people really know what a pension is anymore? It seems to me that the only workers getting pensions are government employees and union workers. That pretty much leaves out 90% of the workforce who have never had a chance at a pension. I think most of those have no idea how pensions work anymore.

I find it ironic that our fiscally retarded government seems to be perpetually cash-strapped, yet no one talks about eliminating pensions in favor of 401k-like retirement plans. You know, irony--like when a clown dies? Maybe it's time for the media to educate its audience just WHAT a pension is whenever they talk about our overpaid, underworked civil servants raise their pension.