Irresponsible Rumormongering: 'Forbes', The Pensions Stripped Bare, What Does Bono Care?
Usual caveats apply, but a tipster writes:
You know that a few months ago [Bono's] investment company Elevation Partners bought a chunk of Forbes. It's not really Bono as much as it's Roger McNamee, the Silicon Valley guy who runs Elevation. But the two of them love to go around talking about their do-goodery progressive politics and helping the little guy and all that. So guess what they just did? Canceled the Forbes pension. Right before Christmas! Fuckers. I'm a long way from retirement and hadn't ever really thought about the pension but Jesus Christ it does bug me that these rich fuckers feel entitled to just take it away after it was promised to all of us as part of our employment. Steve Forbes sent out a note a few weeks back saying if you're 50 plus years old and have 10 plus years of service, you're grandfathered in. Everyone else? You're fucked. Nobody is complaining because a) this is the kind of unbridled asshole capitalism we're always praising in our pages; and b) we're all pussies. Not sure how much money was in the Forbes pension fund but I sure think we employees need/deserve it a little more than Roger and Bono do. More worrisome is what this move seems to say about Forbes's financial condition.
No raises in years, a dysfunctional management team, a family that seems intent only on enriching its own members. When I started at Forbes in the 1990s they had a 2-for-1 401k match and a pretty sweet little pension and good health benefits. The health benefits are long gone in favor of some plan that Wal-Mart wouldn't foist on its employees and the 401k match is down to a quarter for every buck you throw in. Ten years ago Forbes was a pretty cushy gig. Now it's about as cushy as ass rape. Everybody decent is looking to bail. Hello, Conde Nast? Need some staffers for Portfolio? And hey, Bono? Merry Christmas, you faux liberal asshole. Go buy some presents with our pension money. You suck.