Originally Posted by OttoGraham
The PBGC, a federal agency, has incurred many billions of dollars liabilities dumped off on it by UAL. I don't know the exact figure, but it is very high. In addition, the tens of billions of debt which UAL leaves unpaid will be deducted as losses against federal taxes by the people left holding the bag. All in, the cost to the taxpayers have probably been fleeced to the tune of $10 billion by UAL.
$10 billion's just a drop in the bucket compared to what our government wastes on a daily basis.
It's just not UAL that uses the PBGC. US did, and a lot of other companies did as well.
Then again, it could have been worse and they could have gotten nothing.
WN never had to worry about paying a pension, so that was one leg up on everyone else. Then again, they started in a different era. The era that most of the legacies started in was you worked for a company until you retired, and they would take care of you from then on. That is expensive and is collapsing under its own weight ... much like Social Security will in the future. That isn't the case nowadays ... employers help by matching 401k's, but very few places actually offer pensions anymore.
Other airlines like NW and DL have also looked at dumping their pensions on PBGC as well, so it's not like UA is unique to dumping pensions. Were you screaming when US, Bethlehem Steel, and other companies dumped their pensions on PBGC, or is it just UA hatred?