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Originally Posted by Bold Brooklynite
Ken Lay was a crook ... but please allow me to repeat the facts of this "pension" stuff ...
No Enron employees lost any of their own money. What they "lost" was the paper value of the Enron stocks which had been pledged to their pension plan. The value of these stocks was never "theirs" to begin with ... it was only something they were told they would get in the future.
It's like someone saying they'll give you a Rolex watch on your next birthday ... then not doing it.
Castigate Mr. Lay for being a crook ... but please stop wailing about the "little people" who had their "life savings" stolen from them ... because there weren't any.
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BB, that's ridiculous. Yes, stock market savings are only as valuable as the people buying and selling think they are, but when a company chooses to give company stock for pensions, there is an understanding by the employee that the stock is worth about what the company says it is. Kenny Boy and Co. were lying about and covering up the true state of the company's finances, and continuing to push purchasing the stock on their employees. If the employees knew the true state of the company's finances, do you think they would have held onto their stock? Come on. This is not like being promised a Rolex and then not given it as a gift; pensions are part and parcel of the employment package (if a package includes them). They aren't a Christmas bonus. What this is like is using all of your savings for a Renoir that you were told over and over was genuine and that you could resell at a profit in the future and then finding out the guy who sold it to you knew it was a fake that he bought at Wal-Mart. And then the guy dies before you can sue him.
Under your theory, people should be putting their assets only in cash in their mattresses, because otherwise it's just theoretical-- any interest-bearing investment you do requires putting the money in something theoretical-- like a company's future. Pulling out of the stock market would crush big business in this nation. Odd line of thinking for a rightwinger, don't you agree?
Well, at least they have Social Security. It'll keep them off the streets, anyway, if not much else. Forty percent of your average yearly income is not a lot, but it's a safety net, anyway. Yay for FDR! Still saving the average American from the evils of the modern-day robber barons.