Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

Since 1974, an entity called the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation has guaranteed the various pension plans that private employers make available to their employees. However, this Corporation does not cover losses to 401K plans, and is headed towards a major catastrophe if the pension guarantees that have been made cannot be paid out due to poor corporate performances by such industries as the airlines and companies, such as Ford.

Rather than try to perform some sort of magical S&L style bailout, which will have to occur if the present economic trends continue, why not punish corporations who cannot live within means.

Hell, find me a good old fashioned, cow-eating American who wouldn't mind seeing a company that screws over it retirees get what it deserves. Wait, that's not too hard to find, but what is harder to find is a way to screw the company back, while, simultaneously helping the retirees that they took out behind the barnshed.

So, here's the best way to protect future retirees and help present retirees:

• Eliminate Pension Plans altogether and replace them with 401K plans with the stipulation that all 401K plans cannot include the stock of the company that the employees work for. No one wants those marvelous folks at Enron to screw everyone over again.
• Any publicly-held company that defaults on its present pension obligations must limit its corporate board, regardless of the size of the board, to no more than a five million dollar salary until restitution has been paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. That's right...All you Chapter 11 Company weasels have to take a pay cut to take care of your employees first.
• If the company can't come up with the revenue, then the company has to charge all of its customers, retail or wholesale, a 1% tax until full restitution has been made to the Pension Benefit Guarany Corporation.

While these measures may appear a bit harsh or even accuse this writer of utilizling the pen as a weapon against the wealthy elite, the bottom line is that these corporations, not the government, made a pledge to their employees.

If corporate revenues have fallen to the point to threaten the very being of a corporate entity, then yes, the government can provide short-term help, but government should not be compelled to take action if the corporation will do nothing to honor the commitments to its employees.

The only truly economic measure to ensure the pensions that were promised to this nation's retirees is to punish corporations who utilize the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as a quick solution to its financial woes, while, simultaneously, allowing the Corporation to operate as normal for those corporations who are defunct.

Stay tuned for the next blog..........the next sector of the economy to get bashed........the energy sector.