Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev just cut the tape which should play at every pension collapse in the US

“There is No Money. Cheer Up!”

Brilliant, and honest!

Click through to read more.

"Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev yesterday faced angry retirees in Crimea, demanding the government index their pensions to inflation. On the news clip embedded in this article, a woman complains to the Prime Minister to about her tough life in the annexed territory:

It is impossible to live in Crimea for this money, prices are insane, our pensions are being incorrectly indexed, we are being insulted [by the authorities], they cannot even index it by 4 percent. What is 8,000 rubles a month ($120)?! You are using us as doormats! We worked for 45 years of our lives!

Medvedev, who is the head of the United Russia party, did not skip a beat:

We don’t index pensions anywhere in Russia. We do not have the money. Once we find the money, we will index your pensions. Cheer up, and all the best to you. I wish you good health.

Mic drop."

The blue model fail is world wide, from Russia, to the USA. Pensions are seriously in the crosshairs today.

Whether the pension is private:

​Central State Pension Plan is bankrupt . . . 

Or public:

It's time for a pension update from the pension apocalypse center here in Maddogslair at Stately Maddog Manor . . . 

It is likely in jeopardy. 

Medvedev is at least more honest than the American politicians who continue to act like the Trillion+ dollar pension crisis is just so much couch change. 

"In fact, by law, this year Russian pension outlays should grow at 4 percent. This is still nevertheless far below last year’s official inflation rate, which clocked in at 11.9 percent. Pensioners who still hold a job, however, are not eligible for indexed increases under the same law.

Earlier in April, Maxim Topilin, the Russian Labor Minister, claimed that “formally, there are no poor pensioners” living in Russia, since extra payouts from regional budgets make the pension amounts get above the official poverty line. The poverty line for the greater Moscow region in 2016 is defined as $186 per month for working people, $127 per month for retirees, and $162 per month for children. In Crimea it is about $15 less for each category. Around Moscow, rents vary depending on location, but even at the low end will eat up most of that budget. A cup of coffee in Starbucks in Moscow costs around $3, a cheeseburger in McDonalds is $1, a gallon of gasoline is the same price as in the U.S., around $2.50, pork costs around is $4 per pound."

In the Mafiocracy that is Russia, the revolution will not be televised, and asking for more gruel will gain one not a whit. This is coming soon to a pension fund near you! 

"When high oil prices were lining the state’s coffers, an informal social contract arose between Vladimir Putin and the Russian people: in exchange for guaranteed upkeep of a basic social safety net and a slight increase of living standards, the people would forfeit their political rights and not complain. Putin’s perpetual hold on the Kremlin has in large part been linked to the stability of this arrangement."

Forfeiting political rights is for fools, and drunkards, it always backfires, even if it is not a right you wish to enjoy. Fight for all of them, and demand rigid adherence to Constitutional limits on government powers. And make sure your private retirement savings is sufficient without pension payments. Failing that, one may need to find a taste for the doghouse, and kibbles, Alpo will likely be entirely too upscale for pensioners.