Believe me.... I am not trying to 'put down' all the great people who defended our country... and a lot on this board.... but if my quicky calculation is correct (and I doubt it)... 2.4 times current salary does seem like a lot... maybe we should pay MORE when they are working and less for retirement.... but that will probably cost us more... who knows
Well this thread has certainly taken an unexpected turn.
I'm not in a position to discuss the details of these people's rank & longevity without making them easily identified, and that's not my intent. (Dual-military retired officer couples are a small fraction of a percentage of the military.) Together they've carried active-duty ID cards for over 59 years, commanded warships, run shore commands, and worked exceptionally long hours with sparse resources. They've also deployed around the world for a cumulative total of several years away from their kids. While they may be egregiously wasting their current pensions and their financial literacy, I don't have any doubts that they've earned it.
TP, you know how salaries on Wall Street and parts of Silicon Valley tend to be high because the continuity of employment is low? Or for firefighters & police because their jobs tend to be fairly harsh on body & soul? Or for doctors because they spend years going to school and work horribly long hours?
Let's visit the military's death/disability statistics on your workplace sometime, and then you can decide whether or not the pensions are priced correctly. Or have you work alongside the kind of people the firefighters/police get to spend quality time with. Or work the hours that medical interns & residents log when they're learning their trade. It may be your tax dollars at work, but you're gettin' every penny's worth. If the civilian world was paying more than the equivalent of the military pay & benefits then there would be very few people in the military. An entire industry spends a tremendous amount of time, energy, and analysis determining what it would take to hire away that young enlisted technician or that mid-grade officer before they become eligible for a pension.
Over the 30-year lifespan of an average TICONDEROGA-class AEGIS cruiser, it'll consume several billion dollars of construction, fuel, spare parts, maintenance, & overhauls-- quite possibly without ever firing a shot in anger. Its crew will consume several billion dollars more of pay, training, food, clothing, and all kinds of ordnance to be expended just for proficiency. Why, they cruise all over the world just to show the American flag in exotic liberty ports. By any reasonable financial reckoning or activities-based accounting that money is also wasted, especially when you consider that they didn't kill any enemies or break any "real" targets.
Here's another benefit that I hope most don't get from MegaCorp. If Navy enlisted "retire" before 30 years of service they're actually transferred to the "Fleet Reserve" where they can be recalled in national emergencies up to their 30-year point. SamClem and the other retired officers have been too modest to point out that "retirement" means a lifetime recall option "at the pleasure of the President". If things really go in the crapper then us geezer retired officers would find ourselves recalled, given military haircuts & new uniforms, and planted in command centers or staff jobs to backstop the younger active-duty people who are headed for the front. It hasn't happened since WWII and I sure hope it doesn't happen again but the law is still on the books.
I carried an ID card for 24 years to earn my current $37K/year COLA pension plus benefits. When spouse retires this year she'll have been doing so for nearly 30 years and will receive her pension in 2022. If military pay keeps up with the ECI over the next 14 years, then when her COLA pension starts up it'll be about $58K/year (the final numbers aren't in yet) in today's dollars. Go price those COLA'd annuities at Vanguard and decide whether we've been worth it or not.
I'm happy to continue this this part of the topic, but perhaps it would be best as a post starting another thread.