[Rhodes22-list] The Grey Lady

[Brad Haslett]

Joe,

Unfortunately, that is the trend and nothing is going to change it, only 21%
of US workers have a defined benefit plan and the number is shrinking.
Eastman is following the lead of most other big US employers - dumping
defined benefit plans by buying out workers before they rack-up the big
gains in the final working years. The reasons are several but among them are
low long term interest rates, tougher regulatory burdens, longer life spans,
and a more mobile work force.  Most of these plans started after WW2 when we
lived in a different economic period.  I've been preaching to my boys the
importance of socking away money early to take advantage of the time value
of money and every time I get that "RCA dog look".

Brad

On Fri, Feb 15, 2008 at 7:11 AM, Joe Babb <joe.babb at comcast.net> wrote:

> In yesterday's business section of the Knoxville News Sentinel it was
> reported that Eastman Chemical in Kingsport was worried that it could
> not find enough young employees to fill the vacancies left by retiring
> employees.   I was beginning to feel sorry for Eastman until I got to
> the last paragraph which said that Eastman had offered early retirement
> incentives in 2006 to about 250 employees.  Uh, ....  ??? it's just
> business.
> Joe
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