
407,000 Workers Stunned as Pension Fund Proposes 60% Cuts - randomname2
http://money.cnn.com/2016/05/20/retirement/central-states-pension-fund/index.html?iid=hp-stack-dom
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dzdt
This is just the tip of the iceberg. Many state, municipal, and private
pension funds are badly underfunded according to the accounting formulas. In
negotiations with workers, particularly unions, it has always been easier for
managers to make promises of pension payments down the line butnever so easy
to put aside the noney needed to fund that. But also the accounting formulas
are unrealistically optimistic. They assume that money put aside will earn
returns at 7% annually or higher. The economy just isn't growing that fast
anymore, and probably will not in the coming decades. So even pensions which
are supposedly "fully funded" now are likely to come up short in the coming
years.

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IOT_Apprentice
How did they not see this 10 or 5 years ago? Who audits this fund?

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dzdt
Here's what the NY Times was saying 9 years ago : "The Central States pension
plan ... was notorious for corruption in the 1960s and 1970s, but is now known
for being underfunded."
[http://nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01labor.html](http://nytimes.com/2007/10/01/us/01labor.html)

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hga
Exactly; those of us who were politically aware in the '70s heard "Central
States pension plan" and had absolutely no surprise that the nation's worst
managed big pension fund is again in big trouble. Per Wikipedia, matching my
memory, it took the Fed 5 years to wrest control of it from the Teamsters, AKA
Jimmy Hoffa Sr. and the Mob. A big thing back in those days, made even bigger
when he disappeared in 1975.

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liveoneggs
as long as the management company was able to steal that 40% of the money then
it will all work out.

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MrTonyD
What really bothers me is that the top .1% in the US have such an incredible
amount of wealth. I used to believe the propaganda that they "earned" it --
until I worked with multi-billionaires and multi-millionaires in Silicon
Valley. Then I saw how little they did to get those huge sums - most of which
they hid offshore without paying any US taxes and usually avoiding any US
accounting of the money at all. Now we are fighting over the scraps they have
left us.

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charlesdm
Do you consider building (and possibly selling) a business "not to have earned
it"?

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hinkley
Have you worked at any of those businesses? They are built largely on
convincing the day-to-day workers to sacrifice for a vision, a vision whose
benefits will only come back to them in a small way.

And most of what they're selling, when they sell the company, is the
employees. You're being traded for big stacks of cash. Which you will never
see, no matter how many late nights and weekends you put in (btw, the owner
will never be there on those weekends)

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gregatragenet3
It's a free country. If you feel like you are not compensated adequately for
those nights and weekends, then refuse to work them.

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setpatchaddress
Then you get fired. Then you sue the company. Then you won't get hired by
another company, regardless of the outcome of that lawsuit.

I personally am very well compensated by the company I work for; my work is
meaningful to a large population; I don't mind working weekends when the
managers fuck up the schedule planning. But not everyone is that lucky.

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argonaut
Firstly, gregatragenet is saying you should leave a company if you don't feel
like you're being paid enough (with the implication being you asked for a
raise and were denied), or feel like too much is demanded of you. Which is
correct. Not sure why you would disagree there. Also not sure why you would
sue the company over that.

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m0llusk
This is just another reason why some form of basic income is essentially
inevitable.

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slr555
I'm not much of a finance guy so please tell me how this is different than a
Ponzi scheme.

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slededit
Generally pensions operate similar to a 401(k) except for entire companies
instead of individuals. Companies are supposed to fund them with the
assistance of actuarial models.

The problem is a lot of companies either under-funded or the pensions
themselves invested poorly. Ultimately the future cannot be predicted so its
likely at least some would fail even if everyone were blameless. This is
really a double failure of both the pension plan itself and the insurance
that's supposed to provide the public with trust in the system.

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cloudjacker
the kind of insolvency that zerohedge would have a field day over

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yoshamano
The kind of insolvency that zerohedge is having a field day over :P

[http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-21/407000-workers-
stun...](http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-05-21/407000-workers-stunned-
pension-fund-proposes-60-cuts-treasury-says-not-enough)

