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“30 And Out” – The Retirement Plan That We’ve Never Had


May 15th 2019



In 2009, General Motors lobbied for 16.6 billion dollars in government subsidies. Yet, in that same year GM made this request under the assertion that funds would aid the company in order to produce more eco-friendly electric cars and insure their retiree’s pensions.

(*And this is a 2009 report, summarizing GM’s request.)

Nevertheless, even 10 years ago, this request drew wide-spread skepticism over the issue of government spending. In fact, The Wall Street Journal even remarked, “the government could alternatively buy hundreds of thousands of new cars and simply give them to deserving citizens… for this amount of money.” However, today… I ask the question, “was that skepticism fair?” Particularly in the wake of how automakers spent those subsidies and how the automakers have done business, since that time. Whereby, for example, today I almost never see a Chevy Volt out on the road, which was one of GM’s main selling points, when lobbying for said funds, 10 years ago. So, let’s re-examine this debate… from 10 years ago.

Now, what stands out to me… first and foremost… isn’t the vast sum of money requested… or that GM has yet to deliver on it’s promises, to this day (particularly pertaining to electric cars and the Chevy Volt). No, instead… what stands out to me is that GM’s retirement plans, which they sought to subsidize with these funds… are totally different than what we have today!

And more specifically, when was the last time that anyone heard the words, “30 and out?”

“30 and out?”

What is that?

“30 and out?” You mean that people used to retire after 30 years? And that’s exactly what it used to mean, in fact, the U.A.W. (United Auto Workers) apparently offered, “30 and out retirement plans,” back in 1971.

So… today I wonder… why hasn’t this topic been discussed more recently, in the American mainstream media? And why are we subsidizing outdated retirement plans that we’ve never had?

And being a philosophical thinker… I can only assume that the truth surrounding those answers. Yet, I also believe that pension programs today have created leverage for large corporations in terms of government subsidies. Whereby, I believe that in the past these companies have leveraged their own worker’s pensions, when asking for government backed subsidies. And this idea hearkens back to this whole concept of government bailouts… particularly for companies that were once considered, “too big to fail,” due to the overwhelming number of retiree’s whom still depended on them for retirement income! So in essence, today it appears that workers are almost being leveraged against the government, using their own workers pensions as bargaining chips, for government aid!

Which is to say… that I believe some companies, like GM, with large numbers of retirees, have essentially leveraged their retiree’s pensions for government money using, “default on their retirees pensions,” as a threat! And how is that not bad business? And why are succumbing to this threat as an American people? Because to me… this style of business… then in turn, basically twists the government’s arm for bailouts, which is why I believe that pension programs have slowly disappeared from the American work-place, over the past 4 decades.

And in conclusion, if the federal government is going to be so petty, along with the private sector… concerning government aid... than why don’t we just start calling the free market economy, “NASA?”

-William Larsen, Civilians News