As bad as us

Klein argues that since such generous pension “rules” are no longer common throughout the workforce, they shouldn’t be in place for public employees - it’s unfair to private-sector employees.

Actually, it’s unfair to all employees.

Klein is arguing for a society where even more workers are economically insecure, even more workers are at the mercy of “the market” for their retirement. And maybe, ultimately, unable to retire because of it.

It’s true that the private sector doesn’t have it this good - defined benefit plans after just 20 years, that is a thing of the past. But this is a tragedy we all should lament. Government no longer has to compete with high-paying industrial jobs because there are fewer of those jobs - and that’s good for whom, exactly? Technology marches on and it’s cheaper to offshore; the former’s always going to cause “creative destruction” but the latter has been a conscious choice.

I’ll use the term again: Peak prosperity. We’re past it. We’re now in an era where jobs are less secure, where there is significant downward pressure on wages. The advantage has shifted decisively to the employers, rather than the employed.

Except in the public sector. Public sector workers are a holdover from a society that thought all workers had a right to a stable, secure future. But now the rest of us don’t have that and we’re coming for the last among us who do. So we’ll drag them down to our level, insisting all the while this will make government more efficient, and ultimately the nation stronger.

The former, maybe. But the latter just gets weaker and weaker.