John Dillon writes me after a meeting with Representative Jeanne Ives. She wants to turn our pension into a Ponzi scheme. “Let’s get naked.” UPDATED.

Been there. Done that.

UPDATED: In response to the ONE (male) reader who was offended by the 44 year-old picture of Woodstock, I have blocked the offending digits. I am nothing if not sensitive to the sensitivities of my readers.

MONDAY, JUNE 24, 2013

Re: A Meeting with Jeanne Ives at Panera Bread in Naperville by John Dillon

Hey, Fred -You missed a great meeting, Fred. Glen and I have been wrong all this time.  We make too much money, not too little, or even enough or what we deserve.  Before the meeting we may have believed in the legalities of the Illinois Constitution and the concept of a vested protection with Article XIII, Section 5; we might have thought that a 401k was not an acceptable form of retirement savings and would never pass federal scrutiny; we erroneously held on to the silly conviction that as taxpayers we too were taken advantage of when the state legislature took holidays – not to mention being burglarized by the theft of our pension earnings; we held a blind faith in our unions who are still complicit in dealing a bad hand to all of us who worked so hard as public employees; we might have obtusely considered the state’s problems a revenue issue; we might have wrongly figured the debt issue is separate from the normal costs; we might have been allowing the past history of investments in 401k’s color our better judgment that ownership of our own financial futures is better than the leveraging power and investing wisdom of TRS; we might even have vainly hoped that TRS and pensions might be around even at lesser funding than 90%.But we were wrong, Fred.Now we know HB3303 is the legal rapture that will set us (and you) free, Fred.  Free to invest our money on our own, without the state’s dirty fingers on it.  We can be adults like the rest of the taxpayers in the state.  And as taxpayers, Fred, we will no longer have to make up the shortfalls of an economy sent to ruin by Wall Street; instead, we can navigate our own future fiscal health with, well, with financial advisors from…  Never mind that, Fred.  Besides, Fred, the guy next to us reminded Glen and me that the markets have made that money back.  We’re so, so short-sighted, Fred.

C’mon, Fred.  Join us.  You can leave your clothes behind, Fred.  We’ll need nothing more than ourselves when HB3303 passes.

O joyous day, Fred!

–John Dillon