[quote=harvey]
So, I’ll take you up on the book recommendation if you can tell me this: Does it offer solutions? Because that’s what I would need to hear before my position changes.[/quote]
It offers some solutions – in rolling back some of the regulatory changes.
But it also highlights how the system was gamed… how big corporate lobbying worked to change the regulations… How corporations gamed the legal system to sue pensioners – shopping states with more favorable courts, hoping pensioners would die before the case was heard. It was very effective. All of this is legal, but not right. (My employer is a case example – they miscalculated pension benefits for a whole class of their pensioners. Unfortunately for Motorola, the pensioner kept meticulous records and lived to his 90’s – so he survived the 15+ years of delay of his day in court. He prevailed for Motorola Pensioners.)
It highlights how the media has been gamed as well. How we’re told that pension obligations were bankrupting companies, even when some of the accused pensions were OVERFUNDED. (Often the unfunded executive deferred compensation was the issue, not the pensions governed by ERISA/PGBC).
If you want to blindly believe what you read in the media, ignoring the data… that’s your prerogative. Or you can read a well documented book by a creditable author. The facts might not change your opinion… but they might change some of your arguments.
