As we continue our education on pension plans, the reality of the duplicitous conduct of our federal legislators became painfully obvious when we made the numbers “talk to us”.

The days of retiring from large corporations with the knowledge that you could count on a fixed retirement amount each month [called a defined benefit plan] are basically long gone for workers in the private sector.  Also, the ability to count on an annual cost of living increase to ensure that your nest egg was not negatively impacted by inflation is now in our “rear view mirror”.  Oh, federal legislators ‘throw us a bone’ now and then just to quell any potential uprising, but seniors that worked in the private sector are going backwards financially because of increasing taxes.

Here are a couple of articles that explain how and why the shift was made from the employer paid plans [defined benefit plans] to the employee centered plans [defined contribution plans].

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/012714/americas-frozen-pension-dilemma.asp

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/retirement/06/demiseofdbplan.asp

This excerpt from the article illustrates the problems for the private sector employees:

“What Does the End of Defined Benefits Mean for Employees?
The entire scenario is bad news for employees. Unlike a defined-benefit plan, where the employee knows exactly what his or her benefits will be upon retirement, the only certainty in a defined-contribution plan is the amount that the employee contributes. After the money hits the account, it’s up to the vagaries of the stock market to determine the ultimate outcome. Maybe the markets will go up, and maybe they won’t.”

For those retirees that are using their savings, and/or defined contribution plans to supplement social security, relying on the stock market can cause severe anxiety, and the days of getting 3% – 4% in certificates of deposit are long gone.  When you couple these realities with the reality of the ever increasing property taxes, we do not need to be a Rhodes scholar to realize that seniors that worked in the private sector are in trouble – big trouble.  For the most part, government workers and teachers have their “bases covered”, but that is a topic for another article.

What does this all mean for our federal politicians, those “paragons of virtue”, the alleged “stalwarts of the constitution”, that want to ensure that the “little people”, the peasants, if you will, are made comfortable during their later years?  The short answer is that they have robbed us blind without even a “thank you”.  They raided the social security funds; spent it over the years on who knows what.  However, what they definitely secured was their own retirement nest egg.

When you can spend  other peoples money to feather your own nest, there should be a day of reckoning;  but as the former comedian, Jackie Gleason, once said: “Oh, how sweet it is” when absolutely nothing can be done to you.

Please read this 2018 article that shows the unmitigated gall that our elected representatives have in paying themselves pension benefits that the taxpayers are fully funding.  This should be known as the “fleecing of the American taxpayer”.

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/markets/080416/how-congress-retirement-pay-compares-overall-average.asp

We are simply amazed that the American taxpayer just sits back and consumes the manure spread by our federal and state politicians.  It is one big club where membership is limited to the rich and well connected.  The average citizen thinks they get a choice, but,  upon reflection, we only get to pay the dues for the membership without receiving the benefits.

Categories: Education, Uncategorized

Tags: FT