Thursday, June 02, 2005

It's A Matter Of Trust

It has been reported today in the everyday media that approximately 39% of all large corporations, like General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Maytag, and even Goodyear are faced with a unacceptable situation. The pensions and trusts that they have entered into ,supposedly in good faith, are under - funded. You may think that this is not much of a problem . The guarantee fund will kick in and make it "all good" well you are wrong..dead wrong. It seems as though the guarantee fund is way in the red also........this was caused by earlier failures such as Enron.
The only way you will be able to tell if your company is in dire straights when it comes to living up to its promise to provide and nurture your pension for you,which incidently was negotiated in good faith is to seriously check out your companys annual report. Look into the funding for your pension. Be sure that there will be enough money set aside from the companys profit margin so that you will have the luxury of picking which brand of cat food you will have for Sunday dinner.
This situation is reported to affect nearly 44,000,000 million Americans and the guarentee fund is nearly 450,000,000,000 (read billion here) in the red. Perhaps it is time to do something about this debacle before it is way to late. Before your golden years are spent picking cans along the roadways for extra cash.
At least that is the way I see it here in Arrathorns Alley

6 comments:

Don said...

It's not a matter of trust, Arathorn. It's a matter of "this could never have worked in the first place," just like Social Security as it is.

There are not wnough workers to fund the increasing amount of retirees. Pensions and Social Security were ponzi schemes from the beginning. It's just that the Social Security problem gets more publicity because it's on a much larger scale than the pension one.

Neither pension plans nor Social Security accounted for the eventuality of not enough workers to cover the retirees when they were conceived. They are flawed programs from the start.

Arathorn said...

In my opinion don it is a matter of trust due to the fact that these pensions were dutifully negotiated and agreed on by both parties. Had the recipiants NOT lived up to their end of this "Contract" they would be liable for the losses incurred by the other party. As such, the companys either need to find a way to cover what they negotiated for, or face the fact of financial renumeration for the signatories of the contract.You may say that this was a hollow offer on the parts of the companys but if that is in fact the case they are even in a more deporable position that borders on criminality.

Don said...

As such, the companys either need to find a way to cover what they negotiated for, or face the fact of financial renumeration for the signatories of the contract.You may say that this was a hollow offer on the parts of the companys but if that is in fact the case they are even in a more deporable position that borders on criminality.

The companies are in no different a position than our government with Social Security. The difference is if some of these companies are forced to pay out the enormous sums of money to the pensions, rather than turning them over to the federal insurance, they could go out of business. I think that would have a much larger impact on the economy (massive loss of jobs).

Arathorn said...

You miss the entire point of the post..the federal insurance program will be app. 450 billion dollars short of making it all good if and when all the affected people apply for their pensions. People have planned there existance on what was reported to them to be guarenteed by the federal government and it turns out that that has a short fall also.

Don said...

No, I didn't miss the point of the post.. :)

The point is, it was a ponzi scheme from the beginning, and that is now becoming apparent. Just like Social Security.

Michele said...

I sure hope my pension is there when I need it! I don't think some of the big companies could have forseen the tremendous rise in healthcare along with the decrease of people paying into the system.