Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - What should be done with the autoworker pensions?

ASU2003 · 12-18-2008, 03:59 PM

It seems like a lot of the auto bailout talk centers around how the new economy companys with the 401k and less worker benefits are able to out compete the old economy companys. So, these workers paid into the pension system the entire time they were working there, but now they are living longer and having higher and higher expenses. Is it right for the companies who didn't save enough or borrowed too much from that pension account to be able to use that money for other purposes?

Bankruptcy will help the company out, but the retirees will lose out on a lot of their monthly checks from the company. When United Airlines went into bankruptcy, the pensions got cut by 1/3.

401k's might work, but I don't trust them, even when mine was doing ok, it just seems like a disaster in 20-40 years and will prevent the market from behaving naturally. But it made a lot of people a lot of money.

Social security will need to be bailed out or have taxes increased in order to cover them in a few years.

So, what is a person who wants to retire one day and never have to work again need to do? Are companies that offer fewer and fewer benefits to employees (because having any job is better than no job) going to cause a big problem in the next few years when people realize they don't have enough money saved for retirement? Or is it going to take 20-30 years before people realize that they need to save a lot more money for a normal retirement.

12-18-2008, 03:59 PM	#1 (permalink)
ASU2003 immoral minority Location: Back in Ohio	What should be done with the autoworker pensions? It seems like a lot of the auto bailout talk centers around how the new economy companys with the 401k and less worker benefits are able to out compete the old economy companys. So, these workers paid into the pension system the entire time they were working there, but now they are living longer and having higher and higher expenses. Is it right for the companies who didn't save enough or borrowed too much from that pension account to be able to use that money for other purposes? Bankruptcy will help the company out, but the retirees will lose out on a lot of their monthly checks from the company. When United Airlines went into bankruptcy, the pensions got cut by 1/3. 401k's might work, but I don't trust them, even when mine was doing ok, it just seems like a disaster in 20-40 years and will prevent the market from behaving naturally. But it made a lot of people a lot of money. Social security will need to be bailed out or have taxes increased in order to cover them in a few years. So, what is a person who wants to retire one day and never have to work again need to do? Are companies that offer fewer and fewer benefits to employees (because having any job is better than no job) going to cause a big problem in the next few years when people realize they don't have enough money saved for retirement? Or is it going to take 20-30 years before people realize that they need to save a lot more money for a normal retirement.