Summary
President Joe Bidenās economic achievementsālowering inflation, reducing gas prices, creating jobs, and boosting manufacturingāare largely unrecognized by the public, despite his successes.
His tenure saw landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and major infrastructure investments.
However, Bidenās approval ratings remain low, attributed to inflation backlash, weak communication, and a media landscape prone to misinformation.
Democrats face a āpropaganda problemā rather than a policy failure, with many voters likely to credit incoming President Trump for Bidenās accomplishments due to partisan messaging and social media dynamics.
Huh, I didnāt think about how the 401K is transferable, but it makes sense that itās a plus; itās how everyone wishes health insurance worked. But does it matter if you move companies if your next employer offers a similar pension? Wouldnāt that mean you just had two smaller monthly payments vs. one larger one? And werenāt pensions protected from bankruptcy by Employee Retirement Income Security Act? I thought it was because of that Act that companies justified phasing out their pensions for 401Ks.
Sorry for all the questions. Pensions are sort of an artifact of a lost time for folks my age, but most folks that I know that are my parentsā age seem to prefer the stability of their pensions to 401Ks.
Pensions are protected from bankruptcy, but they arenāt guaranteed the same payment. There are maximum payments and itās complicated to give an accurate number, because it depends on the type of pension plan, the age of retirement, years of service, and generally doesnāt honor bonuses like early buyouts.
Pensions have a number of multipliers that make job hopping less ideal. The formula is roughly percentVested x accrualRate x yearsOfService x maxSalary. Vesting hits 100% at 5-7 years, accrual is roughly 1.5% depending on employer. By leaving early you take big hits on the vesting and max salary multipliers that cause it to be a lot less money. One job for 30 year with 100k mak salary would be a 45k pension. 3 jobs, 10 years each with 50k, 75k, and 100k max salaries is only a 33,750 pension.
ā¦OK, Iām fairly sure I understoodā¦most of that. Thanks for the alternative perspective. Iāve generally only heard the negatives from people whoāve had their pensions replaced by 401Ks, so I guess itās good to know what people see as the positives.