Newsday, Melville, N.Y., Family & Relationships column: Ripping off retirement: the big pension swindle.

Publication: Newsday (Melville, NY)

Bookmark this article Print this article Link to this article Email this article Digg It! Add to del.icio.us RSS

COPYRIGHT 2006 Newsday

Byline: Saul Friedman

May 20--Sometimes it's worthwhile, and forgivable, to steal an old magazine from a doctor's office.

You can get a chuckle out of politicians' predictions of, say, victory in Iraq or a balanced budget. But Time magazine of last Oct. 31 supplied background that helps understand today's efforts by business, the administration and Congress to swindle working Americans out of pensions.

Time's cover story, "The Great Retirement Ripoff," was written by a couple of former colleagues, ace investigative reporters Donald Barlett and James B. Steele (who sadly lost their jobs this week in a corporate budget squeeze). They conclude that "corporate [pension] promises are often not worth the paper they're printed on. Businesses in one industry after another are revoking long-standing commitments to their workers. ... Result: a wholesale downsizing of the American dream."

Globalization, competition from...

Read the full article for free courtesy of your local library.