In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression 80 years ago, the issue of what happens to pensions, both in the present and the future, arises! 🙁
The issue of private employment pensions, which already has many victims when workers are dismissed before retirement age, or companies go bankrupt, is part of the controversy!
It is also an issue of public pensions of state and local government workers, who often work for lower pay because of the security of the jobs they hold, and the benefits they offer, including decent pensions!
We are now seeing attempts to cut back on pensions, and to tell younger and newer employees that they can never expect to have the kind of pension plans that older workers have been fortunate to gain! 🙁
It will make the recruitment of future workers harder to accomplish, and it will make already distressed younger employees, who fear for the loss of their jobs, and the problems of getting ahead in their careers, the problem of how to save on their own in adequate ways to make retirement possible in the future when they reach Social Security age!
Plus, the whole Social Security and Medicare systems are in danger of going bankrupt, and one has to wonder how future workers will be able to count on these programs!
It makes the issue of Social Security and Medicare, and the general issue of pension reform, an urgency that MUST be dealt with by governments at all levels!
But it is hard to forecast and plan ahead when there is so much uncertainty now about the economic future in this nation! It behooves the two political parties to overcome their differences, and help plan for a reasonable set of solutions to these vexing issues! 🙁