distro chopped to rcm

On Fri, 22 May 2009 19:57:23 GMT, "krp"
wrote:

Nope that's right. THEY ARE A TOTALLY FREE LUNCH. All that **** JUST APPEARS
from nowhere and NOBODY at all pays for it. IT'S FREE!!!! IT'S MAGIC!


giggle
=============
Actually these benefits were paid for years ago BY DEFERRED WAGES
of the hourly employees, some dating back to the 1960s. Pensions
and retiree medical were paid for by the deferred wages, with
accrued interest, from those days.

The rationale was that there was some tax benefit to both the
corporations, and the employees [i.e. the deferred wages and
accrued interest were tax free].

The company was supposed to "invest" the deferred wages, to earn
the high interest the corporations were paying for their other
loans, which was to be a plus for the employees, and the company
did not have to pay out any cash money at the time, but much
later. From the company perspective, in addition to the tax
breaks, the delay in pay-out was golden when NPV/DCF [net present
value/discounted cash flow] accounting was used, as the payout
was far in the future [c. 30 years].

It now appears that this will be an even better deal for the
corporations, in that with bankruptcy and likely insolvency of
the pension funds, they will *NEVER* pay any of the deferred
wages, no interest, and the taxpayers will pay partial pensions
w/o medical coverage via the PBGC to the retirees. The retirees
who have paid into the pension/medical funds for years will lose
much of their promised old-age benefits.

Be reminded that the "deferred compensation" and retirement plans
of past and present directors and officers are separate from the
blue collar and white collar employee plans, and are fully funded
by "trust funds" that cannot be touched by the normal bankruptcy
process.


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
-------------------------------------------
He that will not apply new remedies,
must expect new evils:
for Time is the greatest innovator: and
if Time, of course, alter things to the worse,
and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better,
what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman.
Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).