The grim economic news today is being compounded further by the spread of swine flu and the potential health hazard of a global virus pandemic which threatens humankind.
Everyone is getting very skittish and paranoid about the Swine Flu; and public health officials all over the world are closely monitoring, mobilizing, and organizing massive publc health resources to combat the spread and contamination of this public health scourge.
That said, with clear problems surging to the forefront about public health, there is clearly a systemic breakdown and hugh crisis confronting the globe, and most especially the developed nations in the WEST, of colossal proportions.
It extends beyond joblessness to the collaspe of health care coverage, costs of insurance, and now the looming crisis of corporate failures and bankruptcies and how these would impact the millions of aging and retired workers in American and European companies.
This crisis is particularly acute in America's auto industry.
With GM, Chrysler poised to becoming insolvent, and bankruptcies looming, we are facing an "out of control" Mack truck, without brakes careenng out of control in the highway.... and that is the pension plans and benefits which heretofore have borne the burden of taking care of retired auto workers, and their suppliers from top to bottom of the "food chain."
It is estimated that for every American automobile that is being manufactured and head out from Detroit's assembly line, a gross figure estimated to be around US$ 1,500.00 must be paid to provide the pension benefits of those retired auto workers who no longer work the assemblies. They called these "legacy costs"; and they are a a burdensome drag which is making the U.S. auto industry belly up and become uncompetitive.
All down the auto industry labor food chain, there is tremendous stresses and pain being felt. Legacy costs, labor costs, materials costs, and the overall systemic collaspe of the Western-European economic system of unbriddled greed and unfettered capitalism.
In sum, with the looming meltdown and collaspe of GM and Chrysler, we are looking down the line at the collaspe of America's pension system, both publicluy-financed federal social security of its state counterparts, such as the one in California called CALPERS.
Worse, those private pension plans previoulsy guaranteed under The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a government agency created (after lobbying by the United Auto Workers) in 1974,insuring these corporate pension plans, are getting wobbly and facing prospects of insolvency.
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation currently insures 29,000 pension plans -- down from 114,000 plans in 1985.
As the population of many developed countries age and keeping getting older, including Japan, Europe, and the United States of America, we are looking at the dire prospects of a collaspe of pensions systems, as we know them, and the social safety net heretofore guaranteeing that retiring workers are taken care of.
Read further:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=7424473&page=1
