I am sure that you have seen Houston and Ca retirement 3% rule. That is when you retire besides you perks , car allowance , vacation etc all figured in as your final yr income , then multipy the final yrs income times the yrs you have worked times 3%. That is 30 yrs of service times 3% gets you 90% of your final yrs pay as a public employee for the rest of your life.

Firemen in Ca that make approximately 150000 after 30 yrs will get at age 52 , 150000 or more for the rest of their life. Yet they will ask you a private sector employee to delay getting your social security.

One fireman this yr ,Ca, making 177000 a year when he announced his retirement his pay was bumped to 240000 a yr so that he could get 90% of that higher figure for the rest of his life. Ca then hired him as a consultant at 100k plus.

Ca and the Fed gvt is broke yet they both have been hiring ,as of 2months ago , Ca added 5000 workers and the Fed 25000.

If Krugman is right about increased gvt projects ,gvt jobs will stimulate the economy why isn’t Ca doing well? In just about every city and state they have been tearing out turn lanes and planting gardens ,grass and planting trees which of course requires more maintenance and gvt workders.