Social Security and Pensions
Just heard from an old friend of the family. He worked for decades at an airline and retired with a pretty good pension and medical coverage. That was important for him and staying with the airline was part of the reason his wife divorced him. Towards the end he was subjected to a series of job transfers that only made sense if the purpose was to get him to quit.
He stuck it out and moved back to his home town after retiring to settle in to what he thought was going to be a comfortable life gardening and playing with his grandkids.
Then a bankruptcy judge decided that the airline wasn’t required to honor its commitment to the retirees. Now he is living on Social Security and Medicare. Fortunately he was debt-free when this happened so he isn’t in trouble as long as he doesn’t get sick. If he has medical problems everything he has worked for could go to cover his medical costs.
If the Republicans have their way, the same bankruptcy court that took away his pension and medical insurance to preserve a corporation from bad management decisions will strip him of a lifetime of assets earned by following the rules. If the Republicans change the Social Security system, those wonderful pirate/private/personal accounts will be subject to forfeiture, assuming that they have any value.
The pattern is quite clear that all of the risks of life are being transferred to people from corporations. Corporations can break laws, pollute, and waste money, but they are protected from the consequences by a series of laws that have been passed or amended in the last four years.
March 8, 2005 Comments Off on Social Security and Pensions
