Les Bonnes Choses

Courtesy of my friend Ryan, I started to read this Financial Post story this morning, with the following opening paragraph:

With more than 90 retired teachers over the age of 100 and receiving benefits, the problem for the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is clear.

The problem to which they are referring, of course, is how to make 93 fatal medication interactions look like an accident. Clearly, teachers have been enjoying the good life for far too long if so many of them are making it past 100. You don't see the pension plan run for Nova Scotia coal miners running into this problem, do you? Assuming they don't die during a cave-in during their working years, you can pretty much count on black lung striking down most retired coal miners the moment they step on to the putting green for the first time.

At the same time, tonnes of dollars (that's metric tonnes of Canadian dollars, which at today's exchange rate works out to 1.144 tons of US dollars) are being sunk into removing such hazards as asbestos from our schools. I say we kill two birds with one stone. Save the money and leave the asbestos. Teachers need a little on-the-job danger; something that won't really kick in until they've finished paying into the system, but resolves quickly once they're ready to start collecting.