Pensions

I received an early morning call to come down to the plant right away. When I got there I found a large group of people had gathered outside in the plant parking lot. They were government employees protesting cuts in their pension plan. I asked what they were doing at my plant and wouldn’t they be more effective protesting at the offices of their elected officials. They responded by saying that their officials cannot get any money because people like me don’t want taxes on the rich increased and that is where the money would come from to pay the pensions.

I told them that 30 years ago I was in the same position they are in and I started a business. I used all of my savings plus a second mortgage on my home to get a loan to cover start-up cost. I worked 16 hours a day seven days a week for ten years and built up a successful enterprise. I currently employ 100 people and they are people just like you. They are happy to have jobs with benefits. Now you are here to take money from me to pay you. Would you come into my house and take my belongings? You would never do anything like that but instead you go through the government to come and take my money out of my pocket and put it in your pocket. If you do that it puts my employees at risk as I may have to lay off someone or at best I will not be hiring any new people. I realize that there are some people who inherited large fortunes but most small businessmen like myself, took great financial risk and worked hard to make a comfortable living. Most of us pay 40 to 50% in income taxes while one half of the American people pay no income tax. Look around at your friends and ask yourself which of these friends can offer me a job. Does it really help our country to put my employees economic safety at risk to protect your pensions?

It appears that you were promised more than your employer can give and that is a very sad situation but the answer is not to “tax the rich”. The answer is to get your financial house in order and that will require sacrifice but in the long run it will protect pensions for future employees. Mistakes were made but correcting them by making more mistakes is not the answer. I realize every day that a down turn in the economy or a change in technology can ruin my business but if that happens I will not expect you to take up a collection for me to cover my loss.

There are times when we all need a safety net. This is especially true when unexpected illness or accident arises and we are no longer able to care for ourselves but being shorted on our pension plan is not one of those times.