Public sector unions

The State of California must be in great fiscal condition. Firefighters there can make $200K a year, retire at age 50 and collect a pension of $180K. In Oakland recently there were 2,000 applicants for 23 firefighter positions. Here is a fascinating indictment of public sector labor unions. It's mostly focused on California, but obviously there are parallels with Howard County given the strength of local unions here. Oh, another parallel is that public pension plans are not fully funded, meaning there is a huge bill lying in wait for the next generation of taxpayers.