The city of Central Falls, Rhode Island says they are so broke they had to give their retirees a dreaded ultimatum — give up 50% of your pension or risk losing it all.

As the size of government across the nation continues to spiral out of control countries and states across the nation are finding it increasingly difficult to pay their builds Central Falls, Rhode Island has been forced into giving their retirees a dreaded ultimatum

According to a CNN report, Judge Robert Flanders who appointed by the state to work out a solution to keep the the city from going bankrupt said the choice is limited to the pensioners to either volunteer to a 50% pension cut or risk losing it all in bankruptcy court.

The ultimatum has been given as part of an overall restructuring plan for the city in which broad sweeping sacrifices and deep budget cuts are being made across the board in order to close the gap on the city’s $80 million dollar budget shortfall.

The Fox news video report attached on this page gives more details on the crisis in Flanders, Rhode Island.

The situation in Flanders may just be a prelude of things to come across the nation.

Many states and cities are on the verge of such a collapse and one will inevitably occur across the entire country if the nation is forced to default on its debt as Greece was just last week.

Adding to the fears of economic collapse is the reportedly stalled negotiations between politicians in Washington to hammer out a deal to prevent a default from happening by raising the U.S debt ceiling.

While a more reputable smaller credit rating agency, The Egan-Jones Agency, has already downgraded the United States credit rating on fears of a default unavoidable , the major agencies have so far neglected to do so instead choosing only to put the U.S. on a credit rating warning.

However, two of the major agencies Moody’s and S&P warned last week if the U.S doesn’t work out a deal to deal with the out of control debt by August second they will be forced to downgrade the United States credit rating. Many analysts warn such a move by the major agencies will trigger a chain reaction of events that will lead to a global financial meltdown.

MSNBC warned last week it may already be to late and we may be soon hearing stories similar to the Central Falls, Rhode Island story all over the United States.