One ‘Entitlement’ Really Does Need Trimming

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/11/24-4

America’s corporate CEOs feel entitled to pensions that pay out $86,000 monthly. To protect their entitlement, they’re attacking ours: Social Security


A new report neatly exposes the monumental hypocrisy of America’s most politically active corporate leaders.

Not too long ago, pensions also used to deliver real retirement security. But the nation’s biggest corporations have cut back on traditional pensions. In 1980, 89 percent of Fortune 100 companies guaranteed workers a “defined benefit” at retirement. By last year, only 12 percent offered that level of security.

Companies have replaced traditional pensions with 401(k)s, and many giant firms — like Walmart — don’t even offer a guaranteed match on employee 401(k) contributions. The predictable result? Among Americans between 50 and 64, the bottom 75 percent by wealth average just $26,395 in retirement assets.

Overall, says Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, the nation’s “retirement deficit” — the difference between what Americans have saved up for retirement and what they need to maintain their standard of living once retired — now totals $6.6 trillion.

So, amid all this retirement insecurity, who actually thinks that cutting Social Security would be a good idea? The most relentless pushing for cutting Social Security has been coming from the nation’s “corporate statesmen.”

[JimboBillyBubbaBob]

1. No cuts,

no time, no place, no amount!

[progressoid]

2. Rec!

[truebluegreen]

3. Raise SS payments, don't cut them--

raise the cap, and apply it to ALL income, not just payroll.

[trof]

4. K&R My company went bankrupt. The federal government now 'owns' my pension.

I get about $1500 a month.
Under our original negotiated union contract it would have been around $5000 a month.
That was not money the company just said they'd 'give' us when we retired.
It was 'deferred compensation'.
We took less in pay each month, and that money was put into our retirement fund which was supposed to be invested and grow for us to receive after we could no longer work.

I was an airline pilot and when I retired we had mandatory retirement (FAA reg) at age 65.

Now our pension is in the hands of the Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation (PBGC).

[Jefferson23]

5. K&R, thanks xchrom. n/t