Quote:
Originally Posted by Jamo
So, given your position on reading the contract, might I presume there's no chance in hell that you'll be reading ERISA and the MPPAA with regard to any points you wish to make about the PBGC?
As an aside...gettin a might cold up there in the early morning hours? |
Yeah, colder than a witches... ...in January.
Part of my time went to looking for a $300 Toyota Smart Key that I ran through the snowblower.
I have a simple statement about the PBGC
at the bottom. But...
Jamo, the teacher in you never quits, does it? I think you enjoy teaching more than law. Teaching even if it's free. Students,
read your assignments etc.
And the whole time I'm struggling to amateur pro-bono for labor ...struggling which in itself is eating into considerable time ...time that I naively never expect to spend, duh. Talk about self delusion.
If I were a trial lawyer, which I'm not, and this discussion was a trial, which it's not, I'd try to redirect unfavorable focus.
I'd try to redirect focus from some troubling testimony, to some less volatile area or bury it altogether, concerning some striking unfavorable incongruent numerical figures.
Or, if I were a teacher of law, I'd make everybody read everything ad nauseum so we could pick, as a good lawyer should, through some obscure details that may or may not arise.
Nice try. Read-fest, geez. I got a day job you know.
Never-the-less, for the benefit of the "court", here is a condensed version of PBGC, ERISA and MPPAA from wikipedia.
PBGC:
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (or PBGC) is an independent agency of the United States government that was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) to encourage the continuation and maintenance of voluntary private defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at the lowest level necessary to carry out its operations. Subject to other statutory limitations, the PBGC insurance program pays pension benefits up to the maximum guaranteed benefit set by law to participants who retire at age 65 ($54,000 a year as of 2009).[1] The benefits payable to insured retirees who start their benefits at ages other than 65, or who elect survivor coverage, are adjusted to be equivalent in value.
ERISA:
The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) (Pub.L. 93-406, 88 Stat. 829, enacted September 2, 1974) is an American federal statute that establishes minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and provides for extensive rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by requiring the disclosure to them of financial and other information concerning the plan; by establishing standards of conduct for plan fiduciaries; and by providing for appropriate remedies and access to the federal courts.
ERISA is sometimes used to refer to the full body of laws regulating employee benefit plans, which are found mainly in the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA itself.
Responsibility for the interpretation and enforcement of ERISA is divided among the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury (particularly the Internal Revenue Service), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation.
MPPAA:
Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 . Not available in wikipedia(?). As a common serf, I have added unrelated expert info to wikipedia ...and this is your most welcome wikipedia chance to teach as an expert, if you haven't already. Yeah, I know wikipedia's a commy site. Center it, if you can.
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Back to PBGC:
Now my adopted theory from AARP, regarding PBGC, is that corporate accounting has discovered they can conveniently shirk pension liabilities by simply "re-organizing" in bankruptcy. As the fund collapses under escalating unexpected claims, the pensions then become the responsibility of the federal government. Those of us on this forum
are the working class. We pay
all the taxes, one way or another. We are, in effect, the responsible part of federal government along with our wallets. So that's PBGC as I see it. But...
As if that weren't enough, cities (perhaps states) cannot go bankrupt in the same manner. To pay pie-in-the-sky promises to employees and bonds, cities generally simply raise property taxes.
So those of us eligible for pension (me, never), first get a "lower" on our fixed paycheck ...as income taxes and taxes on our
paid-for home go up. Reaching the American dream is not a problem. Keeping it is, of late.
And I'm beginning to wonder if some weasels haven't found a way to grossly raid 401K. Economics 101: Whenever somebody loses wealth, somebody makes wealth.
The law of conservation of wealth in the universe, perhaps.
Sweet, eh? ................Not.
Man, can't leave money lying around anywhere anymore.
Wes
...