100,000 plus annual pensions. Is that not a a self-explanatory statement of runaway greed?

Private pension funds guaranteed by the feds through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation has the following comment

What is the maximum amount that PBGC can guarantee?

PBGC's maximum benefit guarantee is set each year under provisions of ERISA. For pension plans ending in 2004, the maximum guaranteed amount is $3,698.86 per month ($44,386.32 per year) for workers who retire at age 65. This guarantee amount is lower if you begin receiving payments from PBGC before age 65 or if your pension includes benefits for a survivor or other beneficiary. The guarantee amount may be higher if you retire after age 65 or if you are over age 65 and receiving benefits when the plan ends. The table at the end of this booklet shows PBGC's maximum guarantee for retirement at various ages. For certain disability benefits, special rules apply (see the following question). Other guarantee limitations that may apply are described in the questions and answers that follow.

There is also a five year look back feature

Are there other limits on PBGC's guarantee?

Yes. For example, if your plan was created or amended to increase benefits within five years before it ended, your benefit may not be fully guaranteed. PBGC guarantees the larger of 20% of the benefit or $20 per month for each full year the benefit was in effect. If you own more than 10% of the business, stricter limits apply. Also, if your plan provides supplemental benefits, such as temporary payments, they may not be fully guaranteed. Generally, PBGC does not guarantee any monthly pension amount that is greater than the monthly benefit your plan would have provided if you had retired at your normal retirement age.

The next time some greedy bastard like Jack Sollis whines about a contract just snort at him like a pig. Snort Snort Snort -- and scratch your nose as if he had the bloody nose of a cocaine addict. The drug of unaccounability is no less destructive to their reasoning skills.

"We must be careful to distinguish between the relatively small number of public servants who receive large pensions and the vast majority whose pensions are modest - some can barely make ends meet in retirement," said Mark Tarnawsky, spokesman for Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which represents Los Angeles county workers.

That is just a voter base you freak. Those small timers think they need to support the excesses so that they don't lose their own meager take. They sold out Democracy on the cheap. They are taking bribes, plain and simple. The top end fucks are controlling the ideas and threatening the poor bottom folks with the risk that they will not have a chance to become a top end fuck. The system survives because neither the top end fucks and the bottom folks have anything to offer the public outside of government employment. If you disagree then go prove me wrong by doing something useful in private enterprise -- but then I too would benefit.