smallgovt1

I'd like your views on what is meant by vested rights and what should it mean?

Many people work for companies that switched from a defined benefit pension plan to a cash balance pension plan only to find a significant reduction in pension benefits. It turned out there was little these people could do except go to court with success in some cases.

I would have thought that vested rights would at least say that if you are vested in a pension plan and an employer switches, then you have a choice of the old or new plan. Without that provision, then millions of Americans had a false hope that their pension was actually safe when it wasn't.

Is this a failure of government or an example of corporations writing pension laws to have such a loophole?

What do you think?

presluc

I think a little bit of both actually.
However, if you ask the question who has the most power it would have to be corporations.
After all not to many organizations I know of can get a tax cut while their country is at war.

Scribbler1

As long as the employer isn't violating any contractual agreement it can do pretty much what it wants to do. There's the problem as most non-union employees don't work under any kind of contract and are therefore there at the pleasure of the employer.
As long as they don't violate a contract or run afoul of any labor laws they can screw their people as much as they like, and there is nothing the employee can do about it.

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

presluc

Like I said, corporations there's the real power in America.

perdidochas

Sounds like a breach of contract to me. If you are promised a vested plan, and in good faith invest in one (by working for a company), you should be given one (or the choice). Failure of government, IMHO.

__________________
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
— Robert Heinlein, Time Enough for Love

Scribbler1

As Deep Throat said, "follow the money", and when you do that you invariably see just who it is that bankrolls multi Million-dollar campaigns. It ain't us.

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

presluc

Yeah, it's all about the money, no bid contracts windfall tax repealed, inheritance "death "tax repealed.
The tricle down theory has turned in to a slow d-r-i--p.

FRYandBENDER

You support the death tax?

__________________
Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask no one to live for me, nor do I live for others. I covet no mans soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

Ayn Rand, Anthem.

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Scribbler1

It's not a "death tax". Nobody is taxing dead people or their wealth. What they DO tax is money that is passed to another through inheritance. I believe the reasoning is that it is unearned income.
They tax lottery winnings. I believe interest on your savings account is taxable income as well. Why not tax inheritances?

I'm not a big supporter of inheritance tax. I just want to know "why not" because I hear very little about all the other things that primarily affect lower income brackets.

Besides, if it isn't treated as an unexpected windfall, but more like something people COUNT on the whole thing seems a bit ghoulish and greedy to me.

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

FRYandBENDER

I just feel that if I spend my life amassing any sort of wealth I should be able to leave it to whoever I want. I think the government takes enough money as it is. Maybe they should be concerning themselves with not wasting our money, and not with finding different ways to tax us.

__________________
Neither am I the means to any end others may wish to accomplish. I am not a tool for their use. I am not a servant of their needs. I am not a bandage for their wounds. I am not a sacrifice on their altars. ... I owe nothing to my brothers, nor do I gather debts from them. I ask no one to live for me, nor do I live for others. I covet no mans soul, nor is my soul theirs to covet.

Ayn Rand, Anthem.

Common insult examples and how to avoid them