Pensions Under Attack

Pensions Under Attack PDF Author: Monica Townson
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 9781550286946
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
Canada's aging population has raised cries of alarm from some quarters. Critics warn of a demographic time bomb waiting to explode and an age war over pensions as the baby boom generation starts to retire in the next decade. They say the answer is to get rid of public pension programs like the Canada Pension Plan and force people to contribute to their own personal savings plans instead. Will this spell disaster for the elderly, or is it a bold new idea for coping with rising costs? Monica Townson, a prominent independent economist, discusses the forces behind the push to privatize public pensions and looks at the likely impact of privatization on the financial security of futre seniors. She describes how Chile, under the Pinochet dictatorship, replaced its public pension plan with a forced savings scheme and became the darling of right-wing governments around the world, and how Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, introduced opting out of public pensions and triggered a major scandal involving some of the big names in the insurance industry. As the debate about pivatization heats up the new millennium, Pensions Under Attack provides the information needed to question the hidded agenda behind the current push to privatize public pensions. It will be a timely contribution to a discussion whose outcome affects the personal financial security of every Canadian.

Pensions Under Attack

Pensions Under Attack PDF Author: Monica Townson
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
ISBN: 9781550286946
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 294

Get Book Here

Book Description
Canada's aging population has raised cries of alarm from some quarters. Critics warn of a demographic time bomb waiting to explode and an age war over pensions as the baby boom generation starts to retire in the next decade. They say the answer is to get rid of public pension programs like the Canada Pension Plan and force people to contribute to their own personal savings plans instead. Will this spell disaster for the elderly, or is it a bold new idea for coping with rising costs? Monica Townson, a prominent independent economist, discusses the forces behind the push to privatize public pensions and looks at the likely impact of privatization on the financial security of futre seniors. She describes how Chile, under the Pinochet dictatorship, replaced its public pension plan with a forced savings scheme and became the darling of right-wing governments around the world, and how Britain, under Margaret Thatcher, introduced opting out of public pensions and triggered a major scandal involving some of the big names in the insurance industry. As the debate about pivatization heats up the new millennium, Pensions Under Attack provides the information needed to question the hidded agenda behind the current push to privatize public pensions. It will be a timely contribution to a discussion whose outcome affects the personal financial security of every Canadian.

Pensions Under Attack

Pensions Under Attack PDF Author: Monica Townson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781459325760
Category : Pensions
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Annotation Will privatizing public pension plans spell disaster for the elderly, or is it a bold idea for coping with rising costs? Major changes to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) were made in 1998. Most likely on future agendas will be the abolition of the CPP and its replacement with a system of mandatory RRSPs. Monica Townson looks at the forces behind this push to privatize public pensions and examines countries where privatization has already taken place. As the debate continues in the new millennium, Pensions Under Attack provides the information needed to question the agenda behind the push to privatize public pensions.

Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry

Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry PDF Author: Gordon L. Clark
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
In this first book to systematically evaluate the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, Gordon Clark argues that the law has failed to project workers' pension rights in situations where it was expected to be most effective: when corporations restructure in the face of enhanced market competition and technological change. Pensions and Corporate Restructuring in American Industry examines recent trends in corporate behavior and government policymaking in the United States and finds that the moral and ethical foundations of regulation are under attack. As a result of intense competitive pressures, Clark argues, some of America's major corporations have begun to flout government regulations designed to protect workers - and to treat the attendant law suits as just another cost of doing business. He finds evidence that some have even used restructuring as the means to avoid statutory obligations to workers. In a series of case studies - including the bankruptcy of the LTV Corporation, the radical restructuring of International Harvester Corporation into Navistar Corporation, and the sale and restructuring of Continental Can Corporation - Clark evaluates the effectiveness of current regulations and the role of government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. His analysis shows that many of the problems of enforcing ERISA can be traced to the act itself - the product of compromises among overlapping and competing interests that fatally limited its effectiveness. Clark concludes that any new regulatory framework must clarify the connections between restructuring and the welfare of workers, connections generally ignored inthe litigation that dominates corporate life today.

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder

The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder PDF Author: David Webber
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674972139
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
When Steven Burd, CEO of the supermarket chain Safeway, cut wages and benefits, starting a five-month strike by 59,000 unionized workers, he was confident he would win. But where traditional labor action failed, a novel approach was more successful. With the aid of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, a $300 billion pension fund, workers led a shareholder revolt that unseated three of Burd’s boardroom allies. In The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder: Labor's Last Best Weapon, David Webber uses cases such as Safeway’s to shine a light on labor’s most potent remaining weapon: its multitrillion-dollar pension funds. Outmaneuvered at the bargaining table and under constant assault in Washington, state houses, and the courts, worker organizations are beginning to exercise muscle through markets. Shareholder activism has been used to divest from anti-labor companies, gun makers, and tobacco; diversify corporate boards; support Occupy Wall Street; force global warming onto the corporate agenda; create jobs; and challenge outlandish CEO pay. Webber argues that workers have found in labor’s capital a potent strategy against their exploiters. He explains the tactic’s surmountable difficulties even as he cautions that corporate interests are already working to deny labor’s access to this powerful and underused tool. The Rise of the Working-Class Shareholder is a rare good-news story for American workers, an opportunity hiding in plain sight. Combining legal rigor with inspiring narratives of labor victory, Webber shows how workers can wield their own capital to reclaim their strength.

The People's Pension

The People's Pension PDF Author: Eric Laursen
Publisher: AK Press
ISBN: 1849351015
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 834

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Book Description
Explores the potential benefits of a government-independent, democratized Social Security system to support dependents suffering from the reduction of other government benefits.

The Betrayal of the American Dream

The Betrayal of the American Dream PDF Author: Donald L. Barlett
Publisher: Public Affairs
ISBN: 1586489690
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
Examines the formidable challenges facing the middle class, calling for fundamental changes while surveying the extent of the problem and identifying the people and agencies most responsible.

Under Attack, Fighting Back

Under Attack, Fighting Back PDF Author: Mimi Abramovitz
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 1583670084
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 183

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Book Description
Abramovitz argues that welfare reform has penalized single motherhood; exposed poor women to the risks of hunger, hopelessness, and male violence: swept them into low paid jobs, and left many former recipients unable to make ends meet.".

Pensions in Peril

Pensions in Peril PDF Author: United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description


The Golden Albatross: How To Determine If Your Pension Is Worth It

The Golden Albatross: How To Determine If Your Pension Is Worth It PDF Author: Grumpus Maximus
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780960058990
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
"I don't love this job anymore, but should I stay for the pension?" This gut-wrenching question is common for many people working in pensionable careers. But how much is your pension worth? And, is staying worth it? Since 2017, Grumpus Maximus has researched and written about this critical decision point, which he calls The Golden Albatross. Having served 20 years in the U.S. Military, he too struggled with the same questions, and now he helps others learn from his mistakes. If your job offers a pension, then this book is a must-read. Easily learn how to calculate your pension's objective value and weigh it against the subjective benefits of leaving for more fulfilling work. When done, you will agree, it was worth it.

State and Local Pensions

State and Local Pensions PDF Author: Alicia H. Munnell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 0815724136
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
In the wake of the financial crisis and Great Recession, the health of state and local pension plans has emerged as a front burner policy issue. Elected officials, academic experts, and the media alike have pointed to funding shortfalls with alarm, expressing concern that pension promises are unsustainable or will squeeze out other pressing government priorities. A few local governments have even filed for bankruptcy, with pensions cited as a major cause. Alicia H. Munnell draws on both her practical experience and her research to provide a broad perspective on the challenge of state and local pensions. She shows that the story is big and complicated and cannot be viewed through a narrow prism such as accounting methods or the role of unions. By examining the diversity of the public plan universe, Munnell debunks the notion that all plans are in trouble. In fact, she finds that while a few plans are basket cases, many are functioning reasonably well. Munnell's analysis concludes that the plans in serious trouble need a major overhaul. But even the relatively healthy plans face three challenges ahead: an excessive concentration of plan assets in equities; the risk that steep benefit cuts for new hires will harm workforce quality; and the constraints plans face in adjusting future benefits for current employees. Here, Munnell proposes solutions that preserve the main strengths of state and local pensions while promoting needed reforms.