Before you conclude that California is trying to balance its budget on the backs of retirees, you should read this article about the mismanagement of the public pension funds.

Good article and very frightening how much trust is abused.

Nice verticalized site too!

That's true, it's among the better organized websites.

Thanks for posting.  As a Californian this is important information to understand, and this article explained it the best that I've come across, a little lengthy, but it's a huge amount of history that took place over several decades.

The most striking take away for me is:  how inept the people who made the investment decisions were/are, mix that with downright corruption, and then have many hands in the cookie jar, so nothing can stop the out of control train wreck.  The few people that speak up, will easily be silenced by the many that are getting benefit from the scheme.

And that's the heart of the problem: It is a machine that resists change because those who could change it are benefiting from it so much.