Saw this about the default of United Airlines from its pensions obligations. Four pension plans hosed by the need to allow a business to operate at unrealistic margins.
Consider the irony, most corporations in the USA pay very little tax when they make a profit, using all sorts of legal moves to avoid doing so. However, if they make a loss, they are very happy to pass it on the taxpayer. Basically the biggest pensions default in thirty years has been passed straight to the US tax payer. And GM and Ford have been relegated to junk status, so look for them to do something similar soon.
This really worries me. If a corporation is simply a means for avoiding responsibility while making the most money possible for the cabal that is running it, then we have moved far from the capitalism that I believe in. (And even that is is in internal debate with the Post Autistic Economics thoughts of the past couple of days.)
How is anyone realistically expected to retire? Or aren't we?
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