No Way To Run A Government

One of the curious aspects of working on the Railroad was the one of a kind Retirement system . Anyone who works longer than 10 years for any Railroad qualifies for Railroad Retirement which is completely separate from Social Security. Any workers who also had jobs that fall under Social Security are subject to a two tiered formula for calculating just how much the retiree will receive from the two different pension funds.

You might wonder why it is so complicated and root cause goes back to the early 1900's when the US government went looking for a good model to copy while creating a retirement system for the whole country that later became Social Security. Talk about government intrusions, they were trying to force people to be comfortable in their old age.

The Railroad retirement system already had so much money they were able to loan money to the Government system in the 1930's when times got tough and therein lies the beginning of the two tier payback formula.

It wasn't the first time our Government looked to the Railroad Carriers for a template on how to do business. They also copied the Railroad Labor act of 1926 as the model of how to treat the average employee. Back then they weren't considered Union workers, they were just called Government workers, but they were still better off than the average Union worker.

Talk about the US Congress butting into other folks business, they actually passed a law forcing the Carriers to provide certain basic benefits to employees. And what was the very first and foremost of these requirements? Water. It literally took an act of Congress to prove to the world that the workers deserved to have some water to drink.

Later on the demands evolved into more luxurious items such as better wages, overtime, and even paid time off so pretty soon all the workers turned into a bunch of lazy no goods, in the eye of the Company. Sure some workers have a good deal and some few have set a bad example but they are are not all crooks.

So the next time it seems like some union worker is asking for too much then please help decide just how much is too little. Do they at least get some water?