We need universal pension reform!!!

[backscatter712]

Universal health care seems to get all the press lately. And that's for good reason - health care in this country is completely fucked up.

But looking at what's happening with GM - retired workers from GM are under threat of having some or all of their pensions taken away. If GM goes bankrupt, the bankruptcy judge will throw the pensions out. They go to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, and the retirees are lucky to get maybe a third of what they earned.

And that's assuming you get a pension. Most of us don't get pensions. We're left on our own. We get Social Security, but who can live on just Social Security? Maybe we get 401ks. How's that working out? The funds are in the toilet, most people don't have enough saved ($50,000 is about the average 401k - definitely not enough), and when recessions hit and the floor's yanked out from under us, we have little choice but to eat the tax penalties and expense, and pull our money out of our own retirement funds.

Not good enough.

We got part way there with Social Security - everybody pays, everybody benefits when they retire or become disabled. It's not enough on its own (unless you like eating cat food...) but it helps. And contrary to the Rethugs who want to "save" Social Security, if we don't mess with it, maybe increase the FICA tax cap, the money's there for the foreseeable future to pay for it!

I say we take this all the way. Just like the most efficient way to reform health care (which is why it's the hardest to push through Congress) is to expand Medicare to cover everyone, we should expand Social Security into a full-sized living-wage pension. Increase the FICA tax, take out more, take more from the payroll taxes, then when you retire, you get more. Enough to put a roof over your head, eat decently, enjoy your retirement, live in dignity. You shouldn't have to get a McJob when you're 80 - this fun should be plenty.

How about it? Stop relying on cheating corporations and the Wall Street casinos for our retirement, and fix pensions so they stay fixed!

[NightWatcher]

1. re: GM, it's about busting unions. AIG still got their bonuses because it was in THEIR contracts

this is all about Union busting.

IF we could create Universal Single Payer Healthcare, the unions would gladly renegotiate their contracts to remove the costs for healthcare, freeing up something like a thousand dollars per car sold.

[MercutioATC]

2. SS is a safety net, NOT a retirement plan.

Mandating that all pensions be fully-funded would be a better solution, IMO.

[billyoc]

3. My Union runs my pension fund, and it's doing fine.

I suggest joining a union and NEVER allowing corporate management of pensions.

[Wapsie B]

4. Do away with the FICA tax cap and we could fully fund SSI

and maybe more. I'd like to know if there have ever been any projections in that regard, as to whether doubling the cap or completely eliminating it would generate enough revenue to fully fund SSI and possibly Medicare for all?

[IrishBuckeye]

5. PBGC is already over $11 billion in the hole, a GM bankrupcey will cost it over $6 billion a year

If GM goes BK once their pension fund runs dry the workers would be transferd to PBGC and cost it over $6 billion a year (there are over 400,000 GM pensions) And yea, and that's with pensions being cut.

[kirby]

7. Did you read this from yesterdays paper?

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/03/30/pension_insurer_shifted_to_stocks?mode=PF

First few sentences:

WASHINGTON - Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.

Switching from a heavy reliance on bonds, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation decided to pour billions of dollars into speculative investments such as stocks in emerging foreign markets, real estate, and private equity funds.

...

[doc03]

13. My annual report from the PBGC said they are

still underfunded but their condition had improved from last year. I'm sure they will require a bail-out eventually, the public is getting tired of bailing out things. You know the Republicans will raise hell about bailing out a Union members pension.

[doc03]

10. That's not the way it works at all. If a company goes bankrupt

the PBGC doesn't wait until the pension fund runs dry. Before GM goes bankrupt the PBGC will come in and seize the pension plan assets, I went through this twice. The first time we went bankrupt back in 1985 the PBGC came in and seized our pension assets and all but a few high paid employees never lost anything. The second time when it appeared the company was going file again the PBGC seized our plan but we were able to work out a settlement with them, our pensions were froze in place and the company still handles the plan. We negotiated a new defined contribution plan that covers us from that point on. I read in the Op that GM employees will only get one third their pensions. If that is the case they must have one hell of a pension. The pension of a 65 year old retiree is guaranteed ($4500) a month or ($54000) a year and if the pensioner chooses a 50% annuity for their spouse in case of death they still get ($4050) a month or $48,600. At 62 the payments are $3555 a month or $42660 a year and $3199.50 a month or $38394 a year. Apparently the auto workers have a lot better pension than I thought $54000 times three is $162000. Don't be surprised if one day soon you pick up the morning paper and read the PBGC has seized GMs and Chrysler's pension plans. I said this was what was going to happen two or three months ago. The President brought in a specialist in these things a couple months ago named Ron Bloom. Ron Bloom was a main player when the steel industry was restructured a few years ago. What they did was took all the troubled steel companies and dumped the Union's legacy costs. A VEBA plan was established to help take care of retiree health insurance. Next all the underfunded pension plans were dumped on the PBGC. Now today most steel companies have very little legacy costs and like it or not that is what is killing the American auto companies is legacy costs. What worries me is if the Government will stand behind the PBGC after all these other bail-outs.

Here is a like to the PBGC pension tables:http://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees/benefits-information/content/page789.html


Oh I agree with one of the other posters that all companies should be required to fund their pensions 100%.

[kirby]

15. PBGC does not make one whole...

The PBGC is a PRIVATE insurance. There is no explicit backup of the US Govt. Though the political shitstorm will probably mean it will be bailed out up just like Fannie/Freddie, even though those two organizations had to backup.

However, people only get 56cents or so on the dollar. So, the PBGC stepping in is really a bad thing and is why I agree pensions need to be funded 100%.

[doc03]

16. That scares the hell out of me I will be depending on the

PBGC myself and I am afraid when it comes time to bail it out the public will be fed up with bail-outs and just say screw um. The figure you have about people only getting 56 cents on the dollar is not really true for everyone. For instance if you are 65 and your pension doesn't exceed $54000 you don't loose anything. I will receive 100% of my pension next year at 62 since it is only $1300 a month and way under the maximum (unless they change the rules). Now the people that say took an early retirement at 48 years old they will take a pretty big cut. A steel company near me had a bunch of buyouts a few years ago and some people walked out at age 48 with 30 years service, they took a big cut when their pension plan failed. Here is a link to the maximum payout chart.

http://www.pbgc.gov/workers-retirees/benefits-information/content/page789.html

[whosinpower]

6. Two things

Firstly - I agree with you totally. Pensions and retirement funding must change dramatically in order to be sustainable and RELIABLE. I think one of the reasons Wall Street got out of control, so to speak, is the flood of money going in from pension/retirement savings, etc.....and with the demand that shareholders maintain a certain amount of profit from money. Money from nothing, except borrowing money. This was thought to increase the capital available for investment - but I think the hazzard of this is that it did not lead to real growth - or perhaps more realistically, it did lead to growth, but not unlimited growth - stagflation began to set in, and the answer to that was globalization - which has had its consequences as well.

Secondly - in order to remake the system we, as workers must be able to have a decent living wage that can allow us to put money aside, in the bank, or under the mattress, and use those funds for retirement. What that means, is that we, as workers have not been making enough to do this, and so, over the years have grown to rely on Wall Street gambling to fund our retirement. We are not making enough - and the cost of living is too high. The cost of housing as an example - should not take a person 25 YEARS to pay off. If a couple could reasonably pay off a home in five to ten years, then they CAN grow their savings to account for retirement. I am not saying that wages need to increase tenfold - what I am saying is that COSTS must reduce AS WELL AS wages rising.

Thirdly - oops I said only two......thirdly - your home is not your ATM machine. The value of that home is not your retirement plan.

[Swede]

8. Look at all the interest my thread on pensions generated.

You HAVE to get control of your vested money!!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5356542

[kirby]

9. Probably for two reasons...

One, very few people have pensions anymore. Corporations and the Government have moved our society from defined benefit to defined contribution (401k) plans. Second, the charts/tables in your post are hard to read they was they are formatted.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

11. Big Surprise here - Companies Tap Pension Plans to Fund Exec Benefits

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15148

US: Companies Tap Pension Plans
To Fund Executive Benefits

Little-Known Move
Uses Tax Break Meant
For Rank and File

by ELLEN E. SCHULTZ and THEO FRANCIS, The Wall Street Journal
August 4th, 2008

At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting their pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefits and pay.

I have lost the capacity to be amazed or disgusted. I think that happened when I found out about Corporations taking out life insurance policies on their workers( so-called "dead peasant" insurance) without their knowledge. That was changed in the Pension Protection Act of 2006. Now they at least have to tell you that they secretly wish you were dead.

[SoCalDem]

12. When cannibal capitalism was "chosen" for us, the die was cast..

Most "civilized" countries chose a modified socialist system, so the health/welfare of their citizenry is important to them...for us? it's darwinism run amok..
The lucky ones will live their lives in a particular niche in time, when things are great, but others will find themselves entangled in times that are turbulent and poverty-ridden..

In the US, if you are not rich and or powerful, you are totally expendable..

[Xenotime]

14. There should be an energy tax to fund pensions. That way the rich pay more.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

17. kick!