Your editorial “Puerto Rico’s Pension Bailout” (April 13) appropriately outlines the dire financial situation in Puerto Rico; however, it comes to the wrong conclusion about what should be done.
There is plenty of blame to go around—from failed political leadership to vulture hedge-fund managers who sought to make a quick buck on the backs of others’ suffering. What is absolutely clear is that no one can justly blaming the 100,000 retirees and 125,000 active workers in the Employees Retirement System of the Government of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico’s public employees pay a portion of each and every paycheck into their retirement system. Most workers contribute 10% of their pay into the retirement system, and at the end of a full career they receive a modest $1,059 monthly benefit.
This isn’t just a financial crisis—it is a humanitarian crisis. Forty-five percent of Puerto Ricans live below the poverty line. For the nearly quarter-million members in the plan, their pension in many cases is a lifeline out of poverty.
Under restructuring creditors may walk away with 50- to 80-cent returns on the dollar. Compare a retired nurse who did nothing wrong and who receives an average annual pension of $12,708 to a vulture hedge-fund manager who knowingly took on a risky investment.
Congress has a moral imperative to give Puerto Rico the tools it needs to restructure its debt, and the process should not leave vulnerable retirees behind.
Bailey Childers
Executive Director
National Public Pension Coalition
Washington