YOU AND YOUR PENSION

The message here — delivered in those per usual Nader flat tones of impeccable integrity and exhortatory conviction — is that many millions of Americans enrolled in private pension plans are cheated each year of the benefits due them and hence of anticipated retirement security. The shady rules of the "game" are outlined, from fine-print deceptions (for instance, most workers are led to believe that their spouses will be taken care of if they die; most are dead wrong) to benefit formulas that rob low-income employees and reward those in high-salaried positions. Again, typically, Nader proposes legislative reforms — the man's tenacious faith in the system's capability to purify itself is downright saintly. Or staggering. Be that as it may, the case data collected from the bilked (over 500 active and retired workers responded to a pension questionnaire), along with complementary information from benefit system authorities and government sources, provide another of those Naderesque true stories of quacksalvers practicing their venality in high financial places.