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Kent, you've (mostly) repeated yourself. I do agree with the view that there are moral and legal problems with the teachers pension (and the other public sector ones), but the reality is that such are simply not affordable now, nor have they been since people started to live significantly beyond 60. A public sector pension is horribly expensive. Not only because it is index linked, but it is often final salary as well, and the often used early retirement. A copper for example can easily have a longer pensionable lifespan than he/she works (e.g. start at 18, retire at 48, die at 80). But it is simply untrue that teachers are paid less than people would get in private industry, even if you add on money for the pension handouts. Teachers are all (more or less) paid the same, which flattens wages out. In a private industry world a Physics teacher would be paid more than you (History teacher) even if you did the same work. In private industry there are people who are paid very little as well as those who seem to be paid a lot ; teachers universally think they would be in the latter group for some reason that mystifies me. It is also ridiculous to talk about equivalent qualifications as some degrees are more valuable to the private sector than others and some, which you can teach with, are virtually worthless. Stealth taxes have had little or no effect on the teachers pension. There is no teachers pension fund as there is in private industry ; it is simply paid out of current taxation. Taxes are required to *pay* these pensions (Council tax rises mostly I think). What I think may have to happen is that the public sector pensions are bought out at their current value and the money transferred into sustainable pension schemes. At some point, someone is going to have to bite this bullet. As someone pointed out, a private sector worker is now paying more for your pension than he is for his own, which is an absurdity really.
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