Always the Media Peddle Bullshit About Public Pensions

All making this stuff public does is it gives the media an excuse to divide the public by creating jealousy toward public sector workers. The media in Oregon, particularly the Oregonian, have put out all kinds of nonsensical articles talking about the "huge pensions" a tiny number of public employees get there, thinking these people are remotely typical. The PERS retiree data is available there, and a lot of it is inaccurate, not to mention some people aren't even listed on the register. The media use it for propaganda purposes.

The fact of the matter is that public employees do NOT "work for you," the taxpayer, because they work for the agencies and are also taxpayers. They are as much deserving of privacy as private sector workers.

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As another commenter noted, by the "logic" of the paper, ALL taxpayer money payouts should be made public, like Social Security, food stamps, Medicare, Medicaid, and all the rest. That is how fucking stupid and dishonest the Gazette-Journal's "argument" is.