Who was at the demo today?

Dan the sole point of private sector jobs is to make shareholders richer. Providing pensions doesn't make money so they don't do it. If you want a public sector style pension, work in the public sector, for the people rather than the MAN!

Blaming the bankers for everything is overly simplistic. But suggesting that public sector workers need to shut up, 'tighten their belts' and sign off benfits they are contractually obliged to while company directors and bankers pay themselves dividends and moan about how much tax they pay is a bit shit. Its certainly not the fault of teachers is it? Its already been shown that even the Conservative projections for pension costs are wrong, and that the cost of pensions is set up to reduce over the years, not cost more and more.

As far as I'm aware, they're arguing for the same pay rather than a pay cut, which is what they're experiencing at the moment.

The government has already stated that the negotiations won't change anything.

Most private companies aren't publicly listed, so they don't have shareholders, so they aren't about making them richer. Private companies include a massive amount of small businesses, which create jobs, and pay massive taxes which provide income for the public sector.

I do work 'for the people' (I serve people, and I am good at my job, which I take seriously) as do millions of people in the private sector.

Whatever the projections, pensions are a massive stone around young people's necks. There is a huge demographic crisis facing us, and it's going to get massively worse. There's no way that the pensions system can handle the average age rising into the 80s and way more people living more than that, maybe spending 10 years in care homes. People are never going to be able to provide for 30+ years of retirement, including maybe 10 years of invalidity. The Government doesn't have the money either. We are all fucked. The only solution is working longer. Unless you want to talk about mass acceptance of euthenasia, or 90 year olds moving back in with their children (or even grandchildren!) It doesn't really matter whose fault it is, ultimately, as whoever's it is, isn't going to be held responsible, or magically solve the problem.

I would be in favour of parity in pay and conditions between private and public sectors, but there are few instances where both provide the same things, so comparison is difficult. I don't necessarily buy the sweeping generalisation that public sector workers earn less than private sector workers. It's not comparing like with like. Many private sector workers are experiencing pay cuts, so right now, that would be parity. It can't make sense for a struggling private sector which is making cuts to fund the growth of the public sector. The money has to come from somewhere.