Russell Wangersky

company or two where quarterly results were crucial, where annual results were the Holy Grail, and the company’s health five years down the road didn’t matter, because, with executive churn, that would probably be someone else’s problem.

Getting out from under the burden of potentially having to pay pensions was a magic bullet: millions of dollars of contingent liabilities vanished off the books, and you could tell your employees that it was all good news — that you were giving them full control over their own future. Kind of like kicking you off the bus in Amherst, N.S., but telling you it was great, because you now had the opportunity to find your own way to Winnipeg.

That great transfer of fiscal responsibility from employer to employee is one of the greatest thefts employers have ever done to their staff. We’re the pension guinea pigs.

There are, of course, people who will still do well; pensions in the public sector chug along, giving retirees a much better shot at a basic standard of living.

There are also those with the knowledge and skill to parlay their self-directed retirement fund into bigger things.

There are also many people who are going to do much worse. Many, many, many people. It will probably get even worse. People talk about the modern gig economy, about shifting from temporary job to temporary job, never pointing out that those jobs often have no benefits at all.

But young people still have time to make sure they save, you might argue.

They might — remember, though, that at 22, I had great benefits and no real idea how good they were, or that I would ever need them.

Youth. Governments might be concerned about all of this, except for the simple fact that they are also focused on short-term results — their re-election.

They, of course, also have defined benefit pensions, rather that defined contribution ones.

It’s like having millionaires telling you not to worry about paying your electrical bill. All material in this publication is the property of SaltWire Network, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part without prior consent of the publisher. The publisher is not responsible for statements or claims by advertisers. The publisher shall not be liable for slight changes of typographical efforts that do not lessen the value of an advertisement or for omitting to publish an advertisement. Liability is strictly limited to the publication of the advertisement in any subsequent issue or the refund of any monies paid for that advertisement.