So all of these trillions of public debt, which benefit only public union employees, were created through what may be characterized as credit theft. This is because these debts are secured not by the assets of the city or the public union but by unknowing victims; the taxpayers.
Right now there are ten cities in Illinois where all of the property tax payments made by residents are used exclusively by the local city government to pay pensions and municipal bonds, the two biggest types of debt created by local and state government.
Illinois is not the only state that has public pension and municipal bond debt. All states and virtually all units of government have these types of debt. These debts are not trivial. The total amount of public pension and municipal bond debt was $8.3 trillion at the most recent reckoning. The largest part of this debt, the public pension debt, was created by government, to help only government employees.
In many localities the residents know that teachers, firemen and policemen collect pensions. But until recent years they often did not know how much money was involved in these pensions. What is worse is that they do not know that most of the money these public servants will receive in their pensions has to be paid for by the residents. It is not paid for with contributions made by the government employees themselves.
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