Framing the Debate

Here's an interesting column over at Calitics about public employees, their compensation and their {gasp!} retirement benefits. Natasha Chart makes a similar point to one I've been making to anyone who will listen: this debate should not be about forcing public employees to make concessions lowering their standard of living to that of the private sector, the issue should be "how can we restore private sector compensation to its once viable past?"

Natasha notes that "[nowadays] pensions are almost surprising," and quotes Jonathon Cohn:

But ask yourself the same question you should have been asking [during the debate about auto worker pensions]: To what extent is the problem that the retirement benefits for unionized public sector workers have become too generous? And to what extent is the problem that retirement benefits for everybody else have become too stingy?

Amen, brother. Amen.