The Real Cost of Pension defaults

This is a story that for some reason isn't gaining the attention it should. People have paid into these funds for years, and now due to poor corporate governance (and in the case of Enron outright criminal activity,) companies are shedding the responsibility in bankruptcy hearings. And while there is a federal fund to cover the bankruptcies, it doesn't always pay the full amount, and due to the sudden surge of companies walking away from this responsibility it is struggling.

"In e-mails to Miller that his staff is posting online, and in interviews, United retirees recounted stories of job-hunting in their sixties and seventies, facing medical costs they no longer can afford, uprooting families to move to lower-cost communities, selling dream retirement homes and losing money they had counted on to support elderly parents."

In other words we end up adding people to an already strained Medicare system. But this ends up costing us many times over, money that could be spent on education has to now cover the pension costs that these companies shrugged off. Money that could have been spent on disease research now has to be spent on Medicare coverage for the pensioners. Factor in the decreased spending power of the pensioners, and this has a very real economic impact on everybody.

But more important is that its just plain wrong. And its about time we see some real corporate reform in this country, a return to accountability to the public, and for executives to acknowledge their responsibilities to their employees, not just their shareholders. Over the years since Enron the GOP has blocked every sweeping effort at reform, electing to only allow very limited laws to pass. Its wrong, and it needs to stop. And if the GOP doesn't want to do anything about it, then we need to elect leaders who will.