It’s not just manufacturing gone overseas

[badtoworse]

12. What you've described has been ongoing for some time, mainly with pensions

Defined benefit plans are going away with 401k's taking their place. If you're in the plan, you stay in, but if you're new, you get the 401k. I haven't been in a defined benefit plan since 2000 when I left GPU, That is the only pension I qualified for and I started collecting it in 2005. Other than that and SS, it's 401k's for me and my wife. I get routinely flamed for saying that everyone needs to save, no matter how little they make. Your point about pension vulnerability illustrates that need as well as anything I can think of.

The electric power business is still a very good career option and I'm surprised more young people aren't entering it. It's not glamorous, but it is a steady job that is relatively insensitive to downturns in the economy. Go to the trade shows and you see a bunch of old, white guys running around. Where there is hair, it's gray or white. One of the industry's big concerns is brain drain - the people with the powerplant experience are retiring and there's not much of a next generation absorbing their knowledge and experience. It's the main reason I can still find work at 62. In fairness, there are a lot more young people entering the renewable sector, but it's questionable to me whether renewables can develop the technology needed to maintain a large part of the electric supply. If we do need to build any large, central station plants in the future it could be a problem - a lot of the guys that know how to do it will be playing golf, fishing or pushing up daisies.