Pew's Plot Against Public Pensions

[jtown1123]

Wait, Pew is Helping Do What to Public Pensions?


The widely respected Pew Charitable Trusts is engaged in a major ongoing campaign with right-wing Enron billionaire John Arnold to undercut public pensions across the country, writes David Sirota in a report released Thursday for the Institute for America's Future. According to Sirota, Pew positions itself as a nonpartisan organization dedicated to the public interest, but when it comes to pensions, Pew has taken an extreme position and allied itself with conservative activists bent on undoing public pension programs across the country to protect corporate subsidies.

Earlier this year, Pew issued a report that there was a crisis in America's pension system and called for policies to help make up pension fund shortfalls in an effort to shore up the financial future of current workers. But Sirota found that the policies Pew is pursuing--shifting from defined-benefit plans to cash-balance or defined-contribution plans--not only don't shore up the future, they almost universally lead to cuts in pension benefits and more retirees being forced into poverty. The only ones to profit from such moves, he said, are the corporate entities whose subsidies will be saved by cutting pensions.

Defined-benefit plans guarantee retirees a steady income that won't change based on the stock market or a bad economy. Such plans allow workers to accurately budget for retirement so they can live a comfortable lifestyle without fear of falling into poverty or running out of money. In a defined-contribution plan, benefits are variable and can decrease based on the economy or stock market. A bad economy can devastate contributors to such plans, leaving them with little to live on.

Read the rest.

[Historic NY]

1. They can't wait to take, take and take by any means possible...

bait and switch with 401k' that likely will cost more and become risky when they lose. The states that do no allow SS in conjunction with a public pension had done their workers a great injustice. In NY thankfully we have a strong elected comptroller that manages the pensions. NY has recovered its losses relating to investments and is able to offer a discounted contribution schedule for local governments.

[Dawson Leery]

3. Arnold wants to invest pensions into high risk hedge funds.

At least with 401k's, you have control over where the money is invested.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. They just don't see real people being affected by their greed. It's all numbers on a spreadsheet.