The Illinois Lottery kinda sorta doesn't have your winnings but is totally good for it, man

Illinois is in bad shape. This is a small thing. The public pension crisis it is facing, as well as its stagnant economy, is a very big deal that is not going to go away.

I have said that the U.S. is in a depression on here, and it makes people's heads explode for some reason. This is something I read the other day with regard to Illinois alone. It gives some good perspective about how things actually are:

Illinois’ economic growth is worse than during the Great Depression

 

The pension problem is at crisis levels BECAUSE of the stagnant economy. The two go hand in hand. This is the paradox of running up debt to live a fantasy. As long as you are bringing in enough money to fund enough of your current liabilities, you can stay on your treadmill for a while. But when your revenue falls way off, due to a depressed economy, you suddenly have a mountain of debt, a structural problem that continues to run up debt. ... and your revenues are falling short of keeping you on your treadmill that kept the fantasy alive for a while.

Their public pension system had a huge number of state employees retiring in their 50s (something like 60 percent), many receiving full benefits. You are right, that in itself was just a bad promise made by politicians that was sure to bankrupt the system eventually. The stupidity is being fueled by debt, which is escalating at a massive rate -- $111 billion of debt in 2015, $130 billion last year. It's unsustainable. At the same time, the economy is languishing in a (yeah) depression, and their state budgets can't keep up with the stagnant tax revenues that economy produces, let alone help out with the massive pension shortfalls.

The whole thing creates a death spiral. They run state budget deficits, have a massive public pension shortfall (I agree, all of their making over decades -- but it is coming to a head now for a reason), and all of the debt they are running up rather than dealing with their structural problems ensures a credit crisis.

I didn't say that the pension put the state's economy in a depression, the way you read it. I said that there is a pension crisis at the same time the economy is in a crapper. The debt mess they are creating as a result, can not possibly end well.

 

You aren't responding to what I posted.

Two decades ago, Illinois' public pensions as a share of Illinois' general revenue fund were less than 3 percent. A decade ago it was somewhere around 5 or 6 percent.

Today, it is close to 25 percent.

The crisis is now, not "decades ago." There are a number of reasons for that, and a HUGE part of it is that Illinois' economy has stalled. They could live a fantasy in 2005 without facing an imminent crisis, for example, because the Illinois economy was producing enough state revenues to fund more of their liabilities without having to run up escalating amounts of debt.

In the context of what I posted (not the post I didn't make that you seem to be responding to), it is part of a death spiral that ensures the spiral gets worse. They go hand in hand. As yearly pension costs (being funded by more and more debt) consume a bigger and bigger percentage of the state's general fund budget (close to 25 percent now!), it is crowding out spending on other things.

 

Do you try to understand the posts you are responding to, or do you have three mantras in life that you repeat over and over again?