BOB HERBERT: Anxious About Tomorrow

[kevinmc]

You know you’ve stepped into a different universe when you hear a major American labor leader saying matter-of-factly that employer-based health insurance and employer-based pensions are relics of a bygone industrial economy.

Andrew Stern, president of the Service Employees International Union, which has 1.9 million members and is the fastest-growing union in the country, is not your ordinary union leader. With Labor Day approaching, he was reflecting on some of the challenges facing workers in a post-20th-century globalized economy.

“I just don’t think that as a country we’ve conceptualized that this is not our father’s or our grandfather’s economy,” Mr. Stern said in an interview. “We’re going through profound change and we have no plan.”

The feeling that seems to override all others for workers is anxiety. American families, already saddled with enormous debt, are trying to make it in an environment in which employment is becoming increasingly contingent and subject to worldwide competition. Health insurance, unaffordable for millions, is a huge problem. And guaranteed pensions are going the way of typewriter ribbons and carbon paper.

“We’re ending defined benefit pensions in front of our eyes,” said Mr. Stern. “I’d say today’s retirement plan for young workers is: ‘I’m going to work until I die.’ ”.........

http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/08/bob-herbert-anxious-about-tomorrow.html

[Vincardog]

1. And the retirement plan for anyone looking for work after 50 yo is just die and rot.

[napi21]

2. Defined Pension Plans were killed years ago! Blame Reagan

for that one too! As far as employer based HC, I think it would be a good idea if that were gone too. A national HC plan would help everyone...employers and employees. I believe it is one of the problems in American industry being able to compete with foreign companies. It's true that the foreign companies pay their workers much less, but it's also very expensive to ship raw materials and finished goods thousands of miles across the ocean and then truck it from a coast city to it's final destination. That's why a lot of our industries were built in Detroit or somewhere near the middle of the country!

If we could establish a decent national HC system and penalize instead of reward companies for outsourcing, we'd be taking a few big steps toward building our country back.