From the bestselling author of Buffett, When Genius Failed, and Origins of the Crash, a wake-up call to the pension and retirement crisis facing America and the road map for a way out
In While America Aged, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein explains how corporations and governments ran up ruinous pension and health-care promises to workers—promises that are now coming due and that will hit America like a tsunami if nothing is done.
Negotiating high benefits means gambling with future finances—and when the farm gets sold out from underneath major corporations or public institutions, it affects all of us, and in ways we might not imagine. With his trademark narrative panache, Lowenstein unravels the truth about how pensions work in America and illuminates the impending crisis. While America Aged is comprised of three fascinating case studies— each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga. The first goes back to the early days of the United Auto Workers and its crusading leader, Walter Reuther, to tell the story of how pensions and health-care obligations destroyed the American auto industry, in particular General Motors.
Lowenstein then shifts the scene to New York City to tell the story of the rise of public pensions and public sector unions through the vehicle of the Communist-led Transport Workers Union. Once again, justifiable benefits were followed by outrageous ones, such as the right to retire at age fifty. The saga reached a dramatic climax in 2005, when workers responded to proposed pension cutbacks with a massive strike that brought New York’s subways and buses to a screeching halt days before Christmas.
In the concluding episode, Lowenstein visits a metropolis even more reckless in doling out benefits—San Diego. Desperate not to impose higher taxes, city officials in this highly conservative enclave cut a series of deals with unions to short-change the retirement system and use pension funds to run the city. A massive scandal ensued—two mayors resigned, officials were indicted, and San Diego lost its bond rating. Lowenstein warns that the pension wars that erupted in Detroit, New York City, and San Diego are only the first. But he also recognizes that workers are entitled to decent security in their retirement—a critical problem as the country ages. While America Aged explains how we came to this crisis, and it also proposes a way out. Arming readers with knowledge of the consequences of doing nothing, While America Aged, first and foremost, a call to action.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars informative or persuasive? depends on your perspective
A book like this is meant to be informative and persuasive. The problem is that there really isn’t a clear demarcation line between the two ideas. It seems to rely a great deal on the predisposition of the reader himself. I suppose that to a greater or lesser extent this is true with all writing, what makes this book so obvious in it’s informative-persuasive spectrum is that i don’t agree with the author’s basic ideas and i find things like his choice of words irritating and as a result wonder out loud not “is he right?”, but “what is he hiding from me?”.
It’s a curious phenomena that i’d like to take a minute to think about and to try to explain. The author is very conservative, both politically and socially. this shows up in things like name calling and a dismissive attitude towards ideas like socialism or state intervention in the marketplace. For instance, the radical labor unions are so obviously wrong that their ideas aren’t worth taking seriously, even for a moment, the only thing to do is see how they used power historically and block their influence in the future.
I can see things like word choice, name calling, dismissive attitude. What i can not see, without repeating what is a considerable amount of research that the author has brought to the book, is the choice of ideas. Intellectual battles are fought (the book details their outward appearan ces), and the streams of thoughtfulness that lead up to them (this is where the book falls completely flat, in the explanations in ideology that drives the people). All i can see is what the author thought valuable and of enough worth to mention, and i know he is blind to the value of anything left of center (so to speak). So what happens is that his reporting seems to boil down to a blow by blow power struggle like a boxing match, not a waltz of competing ideas (which is what i envision history to be).
Is his major idea worthwhile? are pension demands bankrupting companies and cities? probably. but i already thought that before i got the book, which is why i invested the time to read it. My interest was in finding out why and how, what competing ideas won out, and which lost. None of which i really learned from the book. what i learned what that a very conservative person looks at the world in a very specific way, a rather unnuanced way that really misses what i think are really big issues.
5 Stars Buy This Book
I bought this book after reading an excerpt from it in Smart Money Magazine. It was easy to read, interesting, and educational. I felt that it was unbiased since it showed how everyone has some blame for the pension crisis.
5 Stars Friendly advice for progressives
For progressives who know nothing about the author, they might take the three descriptions of pension debacles in this book as an indictment of things the left generally supports such as strong unions and pensions for workers. However, if one examines his solutions at the end of the book, it is clear Lowenstein is center-left and progressives would be wise to heed his advice.
In short, the book describes what happened to retirement systems for employees of General Motors, New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority and the city of San Diego. His exquisite detail shows how time and time again unions piled demand on top of demand and a GM management flush with cash or weak-kneed elected officials agreed to pension enhancements that later hobbled their entities.
At least in GM’s case, one could argue that the deals were cut before real problems began to occur and the problem was not so much with the initial agreements as with the inability to alter them once they became unaffordable. In the case of San Diego, the train went off the rails well before the public discovered how bad things had become because elected officials tried to hide the problem while they made decisions that compounded it.
Lowenstein suggests solutions that many progressives would endorse, such as universal health care coverage and stronger regulation and support for pension systems. However, progressives should also heed the message that union demands can become excessive and when they do, they should be resisted.
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