“Oh, I’ve been jerking on the railroad, all my live-long days”.
I figure if the courts can go after Madoff for his scams, then each one of these defendants should look forward to a nice long retirement in a nice, short cellblock. They’re all supposed to be stooped over in pain anyhow, so short accomodations wouldn’t be a problem.
All their assets should be stripped away and sold to benefit the taxpayers they ripped off.
And as for the doctors – they should be allowed to join a new group like Doctors Without Borders – only this would be named Doctors Without Parachutes. If they survive, then physician heal thyself.
Show no mercy. Give no quarter. Give BACK the quarters.
I have been riding the LIRR for about 15 years and the fact that this was going on was a commonly accepted rumor by the ridership for what I think is about 10 years or more. Not sure why it is finally being addressed and wasn’t addressed sooner.
LIRR stats indicate about 300,000 weekday rides on average. So order of magnitude roughly 1B rides annually. Since the estimated $1B in additional cost is payed out over the life of the employee after retirement, say 20 years give or take, this is probably adding, order of magnitude 10 cents to cost of each ride on average .
Not surprising in a system where the compensation fund was overseen by a small group of insiders. Journalists, this is an area where more investigation would be a huge public service. There have been plenty of abuses documented in similar police and fire disability funds. We all want to see the truly deserving fairly compensated. But once insiders start the abuse, everyone plays along until it gets so large that it draws attention, and the public is on the hook for countless sums. More transparency is essential; don’t let the rascals hide.
Until we control the healthcare fiasco in this country this will continue. Take the money out of the equation by offering free health care for all and guess what? This would not happen! A true liabilty claim will be required to go to court based on true facts not bought opinions. Imagine, medicine that is based on healing in lieu of who has the most money?
“Oh, I’ve been jerking on the railroad, all my live-long days”.
I figure if the courts can go after Madoff for his scams, then each one of these defendants should look forward to a nice long retirement in a nice, short cellblock. They’re all supposed to be stooped over in pain anyhow, so short accomodations wouldn’t be a problem.
All their assets should be stripped away and sold to benefit the taxpayers they ripped off.
And as for the doctors – they should be allowed to join a new group like Doctors Without Borders – only this would be named Doctors Without Parachutes. If they survive, then physician heal thyself.
Show no mercy. Give no quarter. Give BACK the quarters.
“almost every longtime LIRR employee was receiving disability payments”
This has been going on since 1998, is the railroad retirement board blind, or do they get to retire with disability and pension, too?
Also, why would any system pay retirement benefits on top of disability. That is just begging to get ripped off.
Curious how their union is tied to this and the doctors… And one doctor died – under the wheels of a speeding train?
One of the doctors does exams for insurance carriers as well.
The protestors complain of corporate greed. Where is their outrage for this type of con job?
I have been riding the LIRR for about 15 years and the fact that this was going on was a commonly accepted rumor by the ridership for what I think is about 10 years or more. Not sure why it is finally being addressed and wasn’t addressed sooner.
LIRR stats indicate about 300,000 weekday rides on average. So order of magnitude roughly 1B rides annually. Since the estimated $1B in additional cost is payed out over the life of the employee after retirement, say 20 years give or take, this is probably adding, order of magnitude 10 cents to cost of each ride on average .
Wow, how does this go on so long? I understand they need hard proof to prosecute. People need to realize this fraud effects us all.
What happened to honesty?
Not surprising in a system where the compensation fund was overseen by a small group of insiders. Journalists, this is an area where more investigation would be a huge public service. There have been plenty of abuses documented in similar police and fire disability funds. We all want to see the truly deserving fairly compensated. But once insiders start the abuse, everyone plays along until it gets so large that it draws attention, and the public is on the hook for countless sums. More transparency is essential; don’t let the rascals hide.
Until we control the healthcare fiasco in this country this will continue. Take the money out of the equation by offering free health care for all and guess what? This would not happen! A true liabilty claim will be required to go to court based on true facts not bought opinions. Imagine, medicine that is based on healing in lieu of who has the most money?