Plain talk and politicians don't often collide, but put San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed near a Vanity Fair reporter and readers get a fire hose of honesty.
"I think we've suffered from a series of mass delusions." (See, told you so.)
Moneyball author Michael Lewis talked with Reed, his aides and the Vallejo fire chief, Paige Meyer about the disintegrating state of the state of California. And what a talk it was, mostly about how the cost of retired workers will bankrupt cities, counties and states.
Reed's targeting 2014 for the San Jose demise if there is no pension reform.
"When did we go from giving people sick leave to letting them accumulate it and cash it in for hundreds of thousands of dollars when they are done working?" Reed said. "There's a corruption here. It's not just a financial corruption. It's a corruption of the attitude of public service."
The article's overarching point is that some states will survive the financial crisis, some states with be permanently damaged -- an utter shift in society.
The magazine is online and on newsstands today.
