Some Random Thoughts

I have a referral to go see a specialist. I had 3 choices, and all 3 were Jewish. I just live in an area with a lot of Jews.

My father lectures me on the same stuff over and over again. The man hardly ever has conversations, he just warms up to a topic and starts lecturing. These days the repeat track is how people are crying that pension plans in New Jersey cost too much, and they're one of the causes of our high real estate taxes. His points:

• Only allowing people to take one state job doesn't lower pension spending, because those jobs would just be filled with other people, so the money spent is the same


• Lowering the amount of money spent on pensions wouldn't affect property taxes anyway, because property taxes aren't set by the state, they're set by individual municipalities.

I tell him that lowering the amount spent on pensions could possibly, indirectly affect property taxes, if - IF - the money saved was then distributed as state aid to the municipalities, thereby lowering the amount that they need to collect from the residents. I tell him that, but I don't really believe that it will ever work that way.