Promises, promises, promises. What happens when you can’t live up to them? The bankrupt city of Detroit may be about to find out. Thousands of retired city workers may find their lives turned upside down when pension checks they count on to survive stop coming.

Chicago, too, has seriously underfunded its pension plan for retirees, as have cities and towns all across the country. Statistics show that many government entities are in the same boat; they don’t have enough set aside to meet their obligations.

In Detroit alone, many pension recipients will be forced to completely change their lifestyle, and for far too many of them heavily dependent on these checks, merely surviving will be a real chore.

Put yourself in their shoes. You work hard all your life with the knowledge that your pension checks will be there every payday. What must it be like to wake up some morning and discover that you may have to go back to work, no matter how old or unfit you may be, just to pay your bills?

“We’ve watched over the years as government at all levels tends to expand when the good times roll with nary a concern as to the repercussions during the lean years. Hiring new employees and giving big raises or expanded benefits is commonplace, and some would argue that it’s the right thing to do, when the economy is on a roll, but what happens if things begin to fall apart and you haven’t prepared for a rainy day?

We remember all too well a debate by the Boothbay board of selectmen many years ago as to whether or not to expand the road crew by adding another full-time person. Nobody questioned the need, and it wasn’t the salary that was the issue. It was the benefits. In the end, the board opted to farm out some of the work rather than add to the staff. We admired their thinking because they were looking at the “what ifs’’ and decided to follow the most cautious route.

For many employers, it’s the same dilemma; it’s often not the salary, but the benefits that threaten to do them in.

We’ve watched in recent months as Maine Governor Paul LePage has tried to make cuts in state programs, arguing that we’re overspending and can’t afford to sustain current budget levels. He’s been lambasted by those who don’t want to take a step backward, arguing that we should stay the course and stop trying to second-guess what might, or might not, happen tomorrow Guess what? We see where he’s coming from. Maine, like so many other states, has expanded programs in past years that can’t be supported when the economy takes a downturn. Postponing meeting our obligations such as failing to pay hospitals what we’ve owed them in recent years isn’t the way to run a business, and, like it or not, government should operate like a business and not simply try to keep everybody happy when there’s no money to do so.

Detroit will have lots of company in the years ahead, we fear, as others find they’ve lived on credit too long and it’s time to pay the piper. You have to ask yourself what sort of favor we really do for workers when we give them something we might later have to take away. Promises – be careful how you hand them out.