Detroit, That Toddling Town

Detroit, That Toddling Town was Originally Posted on June 9, 2013 by lavarock

It is thought that “toddling” means to sway when walking such as a toddler does, or when one has had too much to drink.

Let’s go with “unsteady”. Detroit is unsteady. They may file for bankruptcy. Part of the worry is over city workers and their “pension benefits”. Note the worry about pensions. A pension is something mosyt of us don’t get. You see the word sometimes on IRS forms when talking about railroad survivors, and when they talk about the Post Office needing to fund pensions.

A pension is a fixed amount given to people periodically after retirement. Unlike money you put aside for your own retirement, you might work for the government, they have a pension plan, and when you retire, they pay you every month, just like Social Security, but different money.

When I said I was retiring from 18 years with a company, people asked me if I was getting a “pension”. I said no, I put money away in a fund *I* manage for retirement.

80% of pensions are “public sectors” (government members) and 20% are union members.

They may be mis-managed, raided or under-funded. They may not have the best investments in them and may have high management fees.

Most employees in the U.S. have a retirement fund, to which they can contribute or not and move to better managed plans if desired.

It seems that pensions have been and continue to be funds that people rely upon to guarantee to pay them in retirement where perhaps it would have been better to put their own money aside and know that it will be there.

In the case of these pensions that are under-funded, recipients may not get all the money they expected. They may have been promises that if they work X year, they get so much per month in retirement. Oh well, good luck on that.