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| Corporate Family Values ____________________
1950’s: Personnel Recruiter: “Welcome to our company. We are family. Our defined benefit pension plan (hereafter referred to as the “pension plan”) underscores our commitment to you as a life-long loyal employee.”
1960’s: The Boss: “Good news – the company is offering a supplemental voluntary defined contribution retirement plan (hereafter referred to as the “K-plan”), with partial matching contributions.”
1970’s: Human Resources memo: Henceforth and forthwith, the pension plan shall be closed to newly hired employees. New hires may, however, still enroll in the K-plan.
1980’s: [Board of Directors resolutions: suspend K-plan matching contributions; increase top executive bonuses.]
1990’s: Human Resources: “The pension plan has been converted to a cash balance plan. Some (translation: “loyal employees”) may need to adjust retirement expectations.” [Board recommendation: shred documents from the 1950’s; increase top executive bonuses].
2000’s: Court rules against changing rules late in the game. IBM loses closely watched lawsuit affecting pensions [8/2003) [Board note: Find an alternative way to renege on promised retirement.]
“Number of service sector jobs expected to shift overseas by 2015: 3 million” [Board: alternative identified - the Chinese have no retirement expectations; increase top executive bonuses]
Note to all Loyal Employees: Now that you have kept your end of the bargain, the joke is on you. We're outa here!
Note to Executive Suite: Mission Accomplished – It's Miller time!
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It's Miller Time!
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Posted By: AZ Moderate Posted on: Jul. 25, 2007 at 9:13 PM  6 Comments
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Based on 4 ratings.
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Jul. 26, 2007 at 01:01:24 PM
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Rating for this article
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| "I think the point is: The skimming of value from the dollar by the Federal Reserve in conjunction with IRS and SEC regulations made it impossible for private companies to continue offering pension plans. Private Pension funds were dissolved in favor of corporate profit and shareholder value. The worker was f***ed and the CEO was rewarded. This is the nature of private business." Ain't it the truth, Mr. Carter? You summed this article up in your comment on the Social Security article by Phaedrus. The two issues are not unrelated, you know. |
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Cancelled Account
Jul. 26, 2007 at 06:52:51 PM
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| This user has cancelled their account with Voice of North America. | |
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Jul. 26, 2007 at 11:13:02 PM
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| One of the funniest posters I ever saw was along the lines of those insirational posters like"There is no I in TEAM" wina football team in the background. It showed a pencil ground down to a half inch from the eraser end. Under that it said "Retirement: When you have nothing left to give!" Cracked me up. Point is, plan for your own future. If you don't you have only yourself to blame! |
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Jul. 26, 2007 at 11:59:18 PM
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| "Point is, plan for your own future. If you don't you have only yourself to blame!" How about this scenario? link:[www.truthout.org] Who is to blame? Unfortunately these horror stories happen far too often to be the exception. This idea of absolute personal responsibility for bad s*** that could happen to you breaks down when bad s*** still happens to people who are responsible. I know that you believe that government shouldn't be in the business of "being our nanny." You believe that charitable donations to the needy should be from private sources, and not the government taking your taxes and forcing you to give to entitlement programs whether you want to or not. But here's the problem. Most people who dislike the idea of government using their tax dollars to give to the poor are the same people who say the same thing you just said: "plan for your own future. If you don't you have only yourself to blame!" In other words, this statement makes it clear that you would not give money to someone who has only themselves to blame. And if your tax money didn't help fund things like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, I doubt that you yourself would be making a private charitable donation. But there are millions of people that keep the same two contradictory things in their head at the same time: 1) government shouldn't be our nannies, the private sector will take care of itself through charitable donations, and 2) poor people are responsible for their own problems because they didn't try hard enough or plan ahead. The end result is that no one will help the poor, starving, and dying. That is why I think that government should be involved in promoting the general Welfare -- not just because it's in the Constitution, but because if government of We the People doesn't do it, it won't get done. |
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Cancelled Account
Jul. 27, 2007 at 12:52:39 AM
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| This user has cancelled their account with Voice of North America. | |
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