Really interesting note sent to John Derbyshire (bold added):

[A friend running for office in Illinois] notes... that the average salary for a city employee of Joilet, Illinois is $83,500/yr. The average taxpayer cost per city employee once you calculate in the pension is $127,000/yr. And city employees make no contribution to their health care coverage and are not particularly interested in changing that. The average household income in Joliet is $47,700.

I recently started making around $250,000/yr, and President Obama says that now that I've made it I have to pony up. But the President is also telling the city workers of Joliet not to worry — they won't have to pay one more penny in new taxes — it's just guys like me who have to "pay their fair share."

I met with a couple of investment guys this week. They told me that I need one million in the bank at the time I retire for every $20,000 I want to live off in interest each year. (They make the point that once I retire I will want all my money in low return, high quality havens.) So I'll need more than $6 million to match the average Joliet employee.

Six million! Dude, you're stealing from the rest of us! Or at least, apparently, government employees with permanent and generous pensions...