zlacker

>>gwintr+(OP)
The "5. The Human Wreckage" section is probably the most interesting - on paper, everyone came out much worse (losers identified are workers, pension holders, shareholders, investors and executives which seems superficially comprehensive).

However it is important to recall that the people who actually made all the money extracting the wealth got out years before, retiring and/or selling stock. They're bystanders now and probably happy to run the whole operation again.

Although as an aside who these people are who think corporate pensions are a good idea is beyond me. People really should be in charge of their own savings in preference to their employer, expecting some random corporation to cover the cost was always a bit crazy even when it seemed sort-of possible that the system was stable. It is easy to have some sympathy but, as a practical matter, it was never going to work and it isn't a surprise that it didn't.

>>roenxi+Hd
The free market is a chaotic system of creative destruction. Expecting a company to still be solvent decades from now is naive. Tying your investments in with the same company that provides you a job is also risky.

Defined contribution is a much less risky retirement scheme.

>>Walter+kD
The 80s were a different time. There were no index funds. No discount brokers. No internet. But from the 1800s up until the 1980s lots of people retired successfully and lived quite well via investing in a single company and receiving dividend returns from that company. But that was back when the stock market wasn't just short term gambling and short term stock manipulation via corporate stock buybacks and you actually invested in strong companies that you planned to hold through retirement.

Funny what incentives get you. We had incentives for long term consistent strength (people holding stocks for dividends) and got it. Today we hold for short term gambling profits so we get gambling style shell games of companies.