Retirement and Pension Funds

* Karen Ferguson and Kate Blackwell (Commentary, July 3) recommend mandatory contributions for employee pensions. On the surface, this seems to make sense. After all, many people are not preparing for retirement. But the fact is employers are already mandated to pay a hefty contribution to employee pensions. This is required under Social Security.

Employers must pay 6.2% of an employee’s wages (up to $60,000) for Social Security (as well as 1.45% for Medicare). Moreover, the employee then must put in another 6.2%. However, in reality, it is the employer that makes this contribution too. And, according to the authors of this article, the Social Security system only pays about minimum wage at retirement. So, do we really want the government to mandate even more money from us?

TOM TAULLI

Monrovia

* Ferguson and Blackwell omitted several key issues about current problems with pensions and retiring. First, one of the biggest reasons that employers are hiring temps and part-time workers is the avalanche of mandates, taxes and regulations forced on us by the self-anointed elite and social engineers such as the authors.

Second, referring to IRAs as “merely savings schemes” and claiming they are a “hefty drain on federal revenue” reveals to me some really ugly beliefs about individual responsibility and the proper function of government in a free society.

Third, my retirement and pension plans are none of the business of Ferguson, Blackwell or the federal government. Who do you people think you are to put a gun to the head of my employer and tell him what wages or benefits he will offer me?

STEPHEN J. MOORE

Irvine

* Last November, Americans voted for less government, not more! One only needs to look at the Social Security system to see the wonders of government security at work.

If an employee chooses a job that has high current wages over a hefty pension plan, then that’s what they should be allowed to do. On the employer side, mandated pension plans needlessly constrain the way business is managed. In the free market, employers will offer compensation (wages, pensions, vacations, etc.) packages that attract the type and quantity of desired employees that will maximize profit. If I decide to forgo the big pension plan for a high wage today, it’s my choice, not the government’s.

IVAN WILLIAMS

Foothill Ranch