Detroit Free Press - pt 3 of 4 - "Why Things Changed" - Disappearing pensions make lives less secure

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http://www.freep.com/article/20081014/BUSINESS07/810140373

WHY THINGS CHANGED | THIRD IN A SERIES
Disappearing pensions make lives less secure
BY JOHN GALLAGHER • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • OCTOBER 14, 2008

Through most of his working life, steelworker Ray West looked toward a secure retirement.

His company pension was expected to bring in around $30,000 a year, his union contract promised retiree health coverage and he had 401(k) savings of about $50,000.

Three years ago, it unraveled. His company filed for bankruptcy. The collapse reduced his expected pension to around $5,000 a year and canceled his retiree health insurance. And, in three years of unemployment since then, West of Hazel Park blew through the entire $50,000 in his 401(k) just getting by as he trained for a new career.

"I lost my job after 27 years before I got my retirement. I ain't going to get nothing," says West, 52.

Of all the threats to the American middle-class standard of living, from stagnating incomes to piles of consumer debt, perhaps the least understood and among the most serious is the looming crisis in retirement.

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