Americans stupid but happy?

[Ray9]

In the mid 1990’s when a major employer in my city called a mass meeting announcing not just the end of its pension program but changes in health insurance coverage burdening employees with ever higher deductibles for services and prescription drug coverage, a few of us knew that some kind of fix was in. Some of us had enough seniority and age years to be grandfathered in to the original system.

As a dues-paying member of the Steelworker’s Union for twenty years before I went to work at the non-unionized local plant. I get a tidy pension from the Steelworker’s Pension Trust, along with the company pension and a generous check from Social Security for an employment history that goes back to 1962. I was lucky enough to have been born a Baby Boomer that started working before American leadership sold out the people to globalization.

The local facility and its corporate masters threw its domestic workforce under the bus in a heartbeat at the thought of building factories in Asia and Europe where pensions, health coverage and even environmental controls are laughably non-existent. It was a bonanza they just couldn’t resist and as management related to me at the time they didn’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage because everyone else was doing it.

It’s unclear how they got away with taking pensions away from younger employees when those pensions were promised when they were hired but good company lawyers were in abundance then as they are now. I knew people who missed getting a company pension by days due to a formula they came up with to justify the theft. Workers get a 401k now and we know how stable those are.

Apparently American leadership decided company pensions are a bad idea for rank and file workers but a great idea for public sector employees like teachers, college professors and politically connected municipal and state breadwinners. As previously stated, I get all those things you will not get. Now if you think company pensions and affordable health insurance are bad for you but good for the people who took them away from you, then you should be happy with your situation; stupid, but happy.

When you vote in November you should consider if you support the idea of South and Central American populations being marshalled into the US to replace you. Trump is just angry and mean you know.

 

[TRFjr]

In the mid 1990’s when a major employer in my city called a mass meeting announcing not just the end of its pension program but changes in health insurance coverage burdening employees with ever higher deductibles for services and prescription drug coverage, a few of us knew that some kind of fix was in. Some of us had enough seniority and age years to be grandfathered in to the original system.

As a dues-paying member of the Steelworker’s Union for twenty years before I went to work at the non-unionized local plant. I get a tidy pension from the Steelworker’s Pension Trust, along with the company pension and a generous check from Social Security for an employment history that goes back to 1962. I was lucky enough to have been born a Baby Boomer that started working before American leadership sold out the people to globalization.

The local facility and its corporate masters threw its domestic workforce under the bus in a heartbeat at the thought of building factories in Asia and Europe where pensions, health coverage and even environmental controls are laughably non-existent. It was a bonanza they just couldn’t resist and as management related to me at the time they didn’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage because everyone else was doing it.

It’s unclear how they got away with taking pensions away from younger employees when those pensions were promised when they were hired but good company lawyers were in abundance then as they are now. I knew people who missed getting a company pension by days due to a formula they came up with to justify the theft. Workers get a 401k now and we know how stable those are.

Apparently American leadership decided company pensions are a bad idea for rank and file workers but a great idea for public sector employees like teachers, college professors and politically connected municipal and state breadwinners. As previously stated, I get all those things you will not get. Now if you think company pensions and affordable health insurance are bad for you but good for the people who took them away from you, then you should be happy with your situation; stupid, but happy.

When you vote in November you should consider if you support the idea of South and Central American populations being marshalled into the US to replace you. Trump is just angry and mean you know.

the newer generation has become the "want it now generation" they would rather see a slightly larger pay check then see deductions from that check for retirement or health insurence
this newer generation has become accustom to don't worry government will take care of it I don't need to worry about insurence or retirement mommy government will take care of me
you might call that stupid but that is what they are counting on government protecting them from their own stupidity

 

[Correll]

In the mid 1990’s when a major employer in my city called a mass meeting announcing not just the end of its pension program but changes in health insurance coverage burdening employees with ever higher deductibles for services and prescription drug coverage, a few of us knew that some kind of fix was in. Some of us had enough seniority and age years to be grandfathered in to the original system.

As a dues-paying member of the Steelworker’s Union for twenty years before I went to work at the non-unionized local plant. I get a tidy pension from the Steelworker’s Pension Trust, along with the company pension and a generous check from Social Security for an employment history that goes back to 1962. I was lucky enough to have been born a Baby Boomer that started working before American leadership sold out the people to globalization.

The local facility and its corporate masters threw its domestic workforce under the bus in a heartbeat at the thought of building factories in Asia and Europe where pensions, health coverage and even environmental controls are laughably non-existent. It was a bonanza they just couldn’t resist and as management related to me at the time they didn’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage because everyone else was doing it.

It’s unclear how they got away with taking pensions away from younger employees when those pensions were promised when they were hired but good company lawyers were in abundance then as they are now. I knew people who missed getting a company pension by days due to a formula they came up with to justify the theft. Workers get a 401k now and we know how stable those are.

Apparently American leadership decided company pensions are a bad idea for rank and file workers but a great idea for public sector employees like teachers, college professors and politically connected municipal and state breadwinners. As previously stated, I get all those things you will not get. Now if you think company pensions and affordable health insurance are bad for you but good for the people who took them away from you, then you should be happy with your situation; stupid, but happy.

When you vote in November you should consider if you support the idea of South and Central American populations being marshalled into the US to replace you. Trump is just angry and mean you know.

401ks are better than pensions, for the young.


YOur point about outsourcing is right on though. But Trump is the only person who has even pretended to address that issue, since Dick Gephardt.

And Trump is less mean and angry than those that oppose him.

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

In the mid 1990’s when a major employer in my city called a mass meeting announcing not just the end of its pension program but changes in health insurance coverage burdening employees with ever higher deductibles for services and prescription drug coverage, a few of us knew that some kind of fix was in. Some of us had enough seniority and age years to be grandfathered in to the original system.

As a dues-paying member of the Steelworker’s Union for twenty years before I went to work at the non-unionized local plant. I get a tidy pension from the Steelworker’s Pension Trust, along with the company pension and a generous check from Social Security for an employment history that goes back to 1962. I was lucky enough to have been born a Baby Boomer that started working before American leadership sold out the people to globalization.

The local facility and its corporate masters threw its domestic workforce under the bus in a heartbeat at the thought of building factories in Asia and Europe where pensions, health coverage and even environmental controls are laughably non-existent. It was a bonanza they just couldn’t resist and as management related to me at the time they didn’t want to be put at a competitive disadvantage because everyone else was doing it.

It’s unclear how they got away with taking pensions away from younger employees when those pensions were promised when they were hired but good company lawyers were in abundance then as they are now. I knew people who missed getting a company pension by days due to a formula they came up with to justify the theft. Workers get a 401k now and we know how stable those are.

Apparently American leadership decided company pensions are a bad idea for rank and file workers but a great idea for public sector employees like teachers, college professors and politically connected municipal and state breadwinners. As previously stated, I get all those things you will not get. Now if you think company pensions and affordable health insurance are bad for you but good for the people who took them away from you, then you should be happy with your situation; stupid, but happy.

When you vote in November you should consider if you support the idea of South and Central American populations being marshalled into the US to replace you. Trump is just angry and mean you know.

Not angry enough. Yet.

 

[gipper]

We need a new unionization movement in this country, but I don’t see it occurring.

Pensions and HC provided great financial security, and built the middle class. Now young people get none of these protections, plus many become debt serfs for decades under crushing student loan debt.

The thing is with the exception of a few politicians, both political parties are happy to threw the people under the bus.

 

[my2¢]

the newer generation has become the "want it now generation" they would rather see a slightly larger pay check then see deductions from that check for retirement or health insurence
this newer generation has become accustom to don't worry government will take care of it I don't need to worry about insurence or retirement mommy government will take care of me
you might call that stupid but that is what they are counting on government protecting them from their own stupidity

I'll make the presumption that in the situation Ray9 addressed the workers had no say in the direction management took. For the workers it was only a case of take it or don't let the door hit your ass on the way out. At our compnay they set up an employee teir in terms of retirement health benefits. Those hired before 1/1/2000 were grandfathered in to the old system in which the company paid 100% of the private healthcare insurance cost. Employees hired after 1/1/2000 share in payments of that cost. Fortunuately my hired date was back in 1981. And I have to say the company was fair in the fact that the change was annouced either slightly before or after the change took place and thus no long term employees were affected.

 

[BluesLegend]

Look around, both public and private pension funds are under funded, trillions of dollars in promises they can't keep. At least workers have some control over their 401k's so don't hold pensions up as some gold standard.