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The Lesson from Wisconsin

The denoument over public worker wages and benefits begins to play out—they will be making less and contributing more just like many private sector workers. Wisconsin’s template will be adopted in other jurisdictions—there’s really no other choice. The Wisconsin governor’s union busting overkill is very much beside the point.

By Jonathan D. Miller | Updated on February 22, 2011

The denoument over public worker wages and benefits begins to play out—they will be making less and contributing more just like many private sector workers. Wisconsin’s template will be adopted in other jurisdictions—there’s really no other choice. The Wisconsin governor’s union busting overkill is very much beside the point.

What’s befalling public employees, who by the way make up about 20% of the nation’s workforce, is instructive to what’s happening across the American economic landscape. Overall wages and benefits for U.S. workers continue to ebb, even fall. People will have to make do with less and save more if they have any chance to enjoy a reasonably secure retirement. A story over the weekend in the Wall Street Journal highlighted the discouraging outlook for looming baby boomer wannabe retirees—most don’t have nearly enough in their 401ks to come anywhere close to sustaining their living standards in post work years. And let’s not ignore the inevitable–Medicare eventually will need to be slashed putting more of an onus on seniors.

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