The Great American Do-It-Yourself Retirement Fraud, Brought to You By Big Finance & Co.

[SoCalDem]

76. Pension plans were DEFERRED PAY from employees as they worked their whole lives

anyone who has ever paid attention to how it works knows this.

Especially during the days when unions were the norm for many workers in industry..
Union asks for 50cent an hour raise, and settles for 25 over 3 years, with the other 25 going into PENSION.. The workers had their WAGES (as they worked) STOLEN from them for their worklife when the pension is not there for them.

Pensions were a way for the companies to defer the day to day wages for a time when normal interest grown and careful investments would assure that the pensions would be there/. There were always people who left the workforce before they were vested, or who died shortly after starting to collect (without a wife to continue to collect)..

The Reagan era policies paved the way for companies/corporations to steal away that money, and instead to con the workers into meaningless (for most) ways to plan for their retirement, while knowing full-well that most would end up with little or nothing.

Companies/corporations used to consider their pension plan money as a DEBIT...money OWED to others.. The Reagan era turned that money into an ASSET, just sitting there untouchable by the employees, but ready for the picking of corporate raiders (Like Romney)