Public employees and certain other large institutions have done an excellent job protecting their employees, including good pensions, on the job savings programs, post-retirement health, etc. Their protection is based on the long-term stability of the employers, many of whom are monopolies (gov’t, education), and their ability to plan long term. That protection is even more enhanced by sympathetic judges who prevent any reduction in benefits for gov’t employees once hired.

The rest of us have to compete for income in ways that offer no real security. Private sector jobs and benefits are only as safe as the employee’s ability to stay in a prosperous employer’s good graces, or the prudently handled trust funds behind those benefits. Small and mid-sized groups are more vulnerable, but even large employers have to make changes.

I support a safe and modest floor of benefits, as Social Security is. I work on defined benefit plans that try to build a safe level of income. But I also hear from many business owners who have no guarantee that they will be able to keep those promises in the face of competition. They won’t give away their own financial interest to be the guarantor of benefits to their employees, because no one can give them any guarantee either.

How can any policy debate deny this reality? Gov’t can always get the funds from us, so they don’t feel any risk. Everyone else had better get into their own private accounts and “ownership mentality”.