Oct 31, 2015

Retirement Inequality

     From a study by the Center for Effective Government:
Company-sponsored retirement assets of just 100 CEOs are equal to those of more than 40 percent of American families. 
  • The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion. That’s equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American families (more than 50 million families and more than 116 million people).
  • On average, the CEOs’ nest eggs are worth more than $49.3 million, enough to generate a $277,686 monthly retirement check for the rest of their lives. 
  • David Novak of YUM Brands had the largest retirement nest egg in the Fortune 500 in 2014, with $234 million, while hundreds of thousands of his Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC employees have no company retirement assets whatsoever. ...
  • Fortune 500 CEOs saved $78 million on their 2014 tax bills by putting $197 million more in these tax-deferred accounts than they could have if they were subject to the same rules as other workers. These special accounts grow tax - free until the executives retire and begin to withdraw the funds. 
  • The Fortune 500 CEOs had more in their company-sponsored deferred compensation accounts than 53.8 percent of American families had in their deferred compensation accounts. ...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

greed is one of 7 deadly sins

Anonymous said...

Today I got a notice from my Chase Freedom credit card company to inform me that the APR on my account that I have always kept either a low balance (under $1000) or paid off every month will increase from 19.99% to 24.99%. Over the years, they have offered to lower it to 8% hoping to get me to rack up more charges, but I always decline so as not to be tempted to do just that...but after getting this "summons" I felt myself getting really angry "how much more do these greedy bastards want?" I also had a chat with a younger 20-something friend just this week. We were talking about how Kohls stores always seem to have these incredible sales: one day I walked out with free towels as they were discounted and I also had a coupon so = free stuff! I was shocked and because I live in a rural area of N. California actually thought it was some kind of "altruistic sentiment" that the corporation had managed to build into its "mission statement" for us beleaguered folks trying to eke out a living in rural areas. No, she said, what they do is make up for it big time with their store credit cards that very high interest rates (as above) that keep low income people (basically the majority of us at this point) forever chained to higher and higher debt just trying to keep our kids clothed in cheap (polyester), third world "fashions" they make overseas for huge profits off the backs of "slave labor" then sell (or give away as bait) to us (increasingly more likely to be working as "slave laborers") here. Well everything gets grimmer from her on out it seems...unless this is all a dream and one day we just wake up.

Anonymous said...

The pensions losat injured disabled workers is also phenomenal starting in the early 90's, The same workers who had well over 20 years of retirement. During the interim of getting injured and onto SSA/Medicare, these disabled were not given their pensions. The employers/corporations sucked up pensions, worker compensation claims and their share of SSA. Those who thought they received SSDI received SSI that comes from states taxpayer money and not FICA to which the employer gives half. I just would like to know where the 3 types of money went and that is not counting the health care welfare pensions plans. Something is totally amiss with all of the many billions disabled workers paid for either via wage deductions and or their battered bodies. Millions of disabled workers with Congress betraying them all. Too bad we we could not have deferred our deductions in a private account in an offshore account like the CEO's or just maybe, that's where all of our deductions/benefits went too.

Anonymous said...

If people were given control of an individual account, what do you think would happen? They would have nothing!!!! Sadly, most people I run into on disability are not the sharpest. Just a point of fact.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately a lot of people representing the disabled are not the sharpest either...