Posted on 02/09/2003 4:00:38 PM PST by A Patriot Son
The company my husband works for (non-union), provides excellent health insurance (we pay no deductables,co-pays,or premiums on all covered services) as part of his employment benefits, in leu of possibly higher wages. He is also guarenteed health care after retirement equal to the amount of years he worked for his company. So if he works for the company for 40 years and retires at age 60, he will recieve full coverage for 40 more years (me also) until he reaches 100 years of age.
In addition he will recieve a pension, and we have been investing in 401k's and IRA's. As I said this is part of his wage package, so I feel for these folks. I am 100% against nationalized health care (I work in medical billing and know how badly the government screws up on Medicare and Medicaid).
If my husbands company paid him the amount that they pay in premiums for his health insurance and we had to go out and purchase our own I would be ok with that. I would probably set up a medical savings account. But since this is part of his wage package I fail to see how you claim this is a free ride.
BTW... he works in an extremely hot and dirty foundry. He works his a$$ off each and every day. If you would like an application (so you don't have to pay $400.00 a month) I would gladly foward one to you, and you too can get a free ride.
%^&@*& hypocrites make me sick! Where were the voters when their elected officials gutted the sovereignty of the USA. Where were the responsible citizens when the stock market's latest ruse hastened the decline of US manufacturing? Where are the improvished naives now?
They are stuck shopping at Wal-Mart for the cheapest garbage they can afford.
Forest Gump said it best," Stupid is as stupid does!"
No, just trying to keep this to one thread, rather than see the spamming of the board one one topic, like some buchannonites once did (but for some reason, no longer do).
Don't even talk to me about manual labor. You have no idea.
-MonroeDN
So does a lowly manual laborer that you detest have no contractual rights that should be respected?
Every American citizen should have the same contractual rights and all other rights reguardless of his occupation or standing in society.
This isn't par of Great Britain with mere subjects(we changed that remember?), nor India with it's caste system.
Most contracts don't survive the bankruptcy proceedings. The people who signed the contract should have been cognizant of the fact that there was some risk involved. If you sign a contract saying that you'll paint my fence and you die before you deliver, I have no recourse to insist on the enforcement of the contract and that is a risk I take by entering into a contract with you.
In the specific case of bankruptcy proceedings, the presiding judge has carte blanche to do whatever they feel is necessary to make the company viable. The welfare of the employees and customers are the primary consideration, but viability often means voiding many of the contracts that make a company non-functional as a business entity. In this case, the judge clearly decided that the burden of the companies existing retirement contracts prevented the solvent operation of any future incarnation of the company and therefore voided them. But at least some people will still have jobs. In the view of the bankruptcy court, it is better to have something than nothing, and it is their job to make the company look sufficiently palatable that someone will risk taking on the investment and obligations of the post-bankruptcy company.
So what was or wasn't written in the employee contract is immaterial. There is no such thing as a risk-free life and people who blithely prance through life under the assumption that everything will always turn up roses is a fool. It is the folly of always assuming someone will take care of you. Yeah, it sucks, but so does death, taxes, and a truckload of other things.
What are we doing to our own citizens? IT programmers can't find work, H1Bs are flooding in. Manufactureing jobs have been butchered, while literally tens of millions of them have been shipped overseas. Dictation that used to be handled in-house, is now facilitated by some Indian half-way around the world away. Registered Nurses are now being shipped in from overseas. Every one of these moves impacts US citizen's wages.
Low level entry jobs are being gobbled up by foreign nationals. Tens of billions of dollars are being sent out of the country, not pumped back into our own.
We run $500 billion dollar foreign trade deficits and can't understand why our economy has no spark.
We have jump-started an economy for a nation that is six times larger than we are. Our foreign investments are drying up while that nation is being bombarded with them.
We have committed corporate harry carrey.
Corporations have no national loyalty. They're just as happy to deal with China as they Europe, South America or Iran and Iraq. If there's a buck to be made, they're there. If one nation goes south, they pick up stick there and base temporarily in the new hot spot.
We watched as Loral gifted China with missile tech. We learned nothing. We deserve what we get.
You are the only one who even knew their were two threads and still you replied to both.
I thankyou for replying to it nontheless though.
It is important that people debate and understand this importance of this issue and learn to respect and value the importance of honoring contracts and citizens rights, over greed and dishonor.
Wrong
Big steel and the unions have been on the teat since the depression. They should of taken their wack in the eairly 60's, but were kept on political/economic life support. The dream's over, pull the plug. Steel's cheep as dirt, anyone and everyones making it.
would you also say that to the military retirees, and how about the police and the firemen?
Keep your chin up, and stop being so pessimistic.
I cannot in good concience watch whole industries, towns, regions gutted by over regulation and government policies that reward corporations for relocating overseas, without speaking out against it.
The Soviet Union couldn't have done more damage to the US if it had activated it's entire cold war spy network. Our government is hell bent on destroying this nation. They've done a damned good job so far.
Why can't this country be consuming our own steel. Only an idiot would be blind to the blight and decay in most of our urban areas. Why can't our country be building at a pace similar to that of China. Why? GREED and LAZINESS!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.