PBGC today reported a $20billion plus gap between it's assets and it's needs for the year. With several more airlines (and auto related companies) considering defaulting. this could turn into real money fast.
This is mostly Congress's fault for not implementing more stringent rules on how pensions are funded. Funding is more or less voluntary on the companies part and, lately, they've been piling huge profits into executive pay and stock buybacks and expansion, rather than actually funding the people who made those profits for them. This is just wrong.
Congress should force companies to bring unfunded pensions up to date, it should penalize companies with profits that do not fund, it should make it more difficult to default or bankrupt out of the them (put them first in the line of secured creditors?), it should do a any number of things to fix the system and repair the already done damage.
I would, frankly, rather work for a company with a good 401k plan (the number is diminishing) than one with a pension. But for those who do work for companies with pensiosn, those pensions should be a priority for management, not just an afterthought.
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