In article , Harold and Susan Vordos says...

That's what most private companies are doing now with their pension
plans. "sorry the cost is too big. You don't get what we promised."

Had the workers demanded something more reasonable, maybe it wouldn't have
happened. Workers expecting to be taken care of for years after they're
retired is no more unreasonable than you feel is SS. One difference is SS
isn't a lot of money, unlike many of the retirement packages some folks have
(had).

All that stuff is gone now, Harold. I don't know if you've been
following the details in the press about a Large Blue Computer
Company has been dealing with the pension issue, but in a nutshell,
this is it:

Whatever you thought you were getting, forget about it.

I've come to the realization that nobody will be paying for my
retirement, ever. Not my employer, not the government. Yet the
employer is making lots of profit, and the government has me
paying SS tax as well.

From one of the best companies to work for, over ones lifetime, to
one of the worst, in about 20 years. The article in the Week in Review
section of the NY Times made that pretty clear - as a pension plan goes
I had better start saving now, even more so.

There used to be quite an incentive to be loyal to one's employer.
There used to be such things as careers. Now it's basically a job.

There's quite some incentive for folks with skills and talents to
take it on the road and see where else in the world their skills
could be employed. Seems like folks who rely on a productive workforce
(SS recipients?) would be worried if all the corporate changes happening
now are giving the wage earnes a big incentive to move elsewhere.

Eventually there won't be anyone doing any work, and there won't
be any taxes being paid. What happens when the last guy turns out
the light?

Honestly I'm not picking on you personally Harold. I'm more commiserating
than anything else. I just shudder to think what my daughter is going
to face when she enters the workforce.

Jim


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