Spiffy. That is just neat. I can see myself trying that out if only I would recognize the changes. Now I don't have SoA so I cannot tell, but after reading these comments I'll be paying more attention to the music in my current game, Deus Ex II.
I should thank the editors for actually including the link to the BBC article since a brain fart left me forgetting to include the link.
Any how. Crazy. First submission accepted for me!
But abotu the article.... there have been a couple of games I remember that I actually wanted the soundtrack. Starsiege: Tribes had some fun techno tracks that could be assigned to a level based on the map designer's settings. Also, and even better, is the Evil Genius music, which is a symphonic score straight from Austin Powers / James Bond. Great game. Great musical score.
What about cell phone triangulation? This location information is built into many cell phones already and I can see it easily being included in devices. The benefit is that the device only needs to know aproximate locations and it doesn't have to send data, though it could be real sneeky and do it any wya. There would not need to be any additional cost for this system because cell transmission below a certain packet size a forwarded with out incurring a charge. So as long as the device does a ping home and as long as the ping can be traced physically, the DVD company can know exactly where that device is.
This is not the case! The IRS has no say in the matter. To get bennies, the contractors must prove under benefits law, not tax law, that they are HP employees.
Yep I see you point quite clearely. I personally think the case will if anything only serve to accelerate outsourcing plans to India. Why bother with the fuzzy line locally when there is no confusion if the people line on the other side of the globe and work as a one stop software shop.
I already know that I am not part of the possible contractors that this suit covers. Something of interest is this article regarding a presentation by HP senior counsel Mark DeMeester during the October 2003 meeting made it "apparent to those assembled that HP was violating the law in a manner that was virtually identical to the Microsoft case." In the suit, McClendon claims that points made by DeMeester indicated that HP was following in Microsoft's footsteps: - Having contractors supervised by HP managers. -Integrating contractors into the HP team. -Having contractors perform the same work as permanent HP employees. -Having contractors do the same job for as much as two years. -Using contractors for work critical to the delivery of core HP products. McClendon alleged that those present at the meeting were ordered to destroy any written notes or erase notes taken on laptops. He said they were told that "without a 'paper path' it would be difficult for a lawsuit to be decided against HP."
In case no one else say it, the same paper also published an article describing a case brought by an HP Employee before the class-action suit was announced because of a demotion and pay cut because the employee stood up against the contracting policies at HP. I'll quote interesting bits...
Former project manager Mike McClendon alleges he was demoted and had his pay grade reduced after warning HP executives that by classifying long-time workers as contractors the company was risking an Internal Revenue Service investigation and a possible multimillion dollar lawsuit.
McClendon's lawsuit claimed that a presentation by HP senior counsel Mark DeMeester during the October 2003 meeting made it "apparent to those assembled that HP was violating the law in a manner that was virtually identical to the Microsoft case."
In the suit, McClendon claims that points made by DeMeester indicated that HP was following in Microsoft's footsteps by:
Having contractors supervised by HP managers.
Integrating contractors into the HP team.
Having contractors perform the same work as permanent HP employees.
Having contractors do the same job for as much as two years.
Using contractors for work critical to the delivery of core HP products.
McClendon alleged that those present at the meeting were ordered to destroy any written notes or erase notes taken on laptops. He said they were told that "without a 'paper path' it would be difficult for a lawsuit to be decided against HP."
McClendon alleges HP has ordered him not to discuss the suit, and he has declined do so beyond what is in the suit. He is asking the court to lift that gag order.
This isn't just something that the greedy contractors are worrying about.
Oh yeah.... I remember those announcements. Carly said that the Services business was the next biggest thing for HP and that we were going to take on IBM and SAP, etc. Then the Services division sucked money while Imaging & Printing still generated money like always.
I Am being paid a significant premium for the instability of contracting, almost 50%.
Except that no one working through Adecco or Manpower or Veritest (etc) gets paid that premium. We work for less than the employees. I know this isn't their legal fault it is the market conditions. HP can do this because the force positions to be contract only instead of direct hire. They have quotas to make group X a Y:Z ratio of employees to contractors no matter what the work is, who does it, or for how long.
Correct. I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpower and we do in fact get a W-2 from Manpower. The problem is that HP forces the position to be contract by not opening it up for hire as an employee because they do not want to pay for an employee. As a contractor we earn less per hour take home than the employees. This ignores their benefits which are not provided by the contract agency. If you want health coverage, we pay $600 / month for a family coverage. IF we want a 401(k) Manpower provides an account, but does not match anything. If we want stock options Manpower will let us buy the options from them.
Since I work at Boise HP with Jennifer Miller I'll jump in here...
Contractors are paid less than employees and have to pay the contract agency for any benefits if they want them. Jennifer was in a position called a Managed-Service so that HP could avoid having to lay off the contractor after 2 years of work. I don't know how the managed-service classification got started but it clearely was meant to skirt the employment rules.
Things at Boise HP sound very similar to your situation. There are few if any other games in town. The ones that were able to leave for other employment were absolutely brilliant or lucky to get a position. THe ones that stay as contractors stay because no one else in the valley does what they know how to do.
We have one choice. Leave the field we are in for something entirely unrelated. That is what I am doing.
In this case we get a W2 from Manpower (I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpwoer at HP). Our taxes were paid by Manpower as were all "benefits" which included only a week paid vacation. Every other benefit was charged to the contractor. Want Health coverage for a family? That will cost you $400 / month. Want a 401(k)? Great. We will set it up for you and let you deposit as much as you legally can (nothing is matched by them). Want stock options? Buy them your self.
In our case, there is no option. I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpower at the Boise HP plant. We worked in their cubes next to their employees, under their guidelines, and on their equipment. There is no option to work anywhere else as contractors are not allowed to have home DSL/Cable connections so that we can "work from home".
Just today two employees I work with sent out messages that they were working from home and would be available via email and internal messaging clients. No contractors are afforded this luxury. We have to be physically present to clock any time.
Correct. Manpower provides a few opportunities to feel like a "Manpower Employee" by constantly refering to HP as "the customer" and NEVER as HP... like the contractors are somehow providing a service to HP that HP wouldn't be doing if the contract agency wern't there to shield them.
My first interview at HP was not even with Manpower / Adecco. They just passed on the qualified resumes to HP and I interviewed with a contract manager and HP manager at the same time in the same room. I have worked for Adecco and Manpower at the Boise HP site and both opperate about the same. One difference is that Manpower provides some skeleton of a company to make you feel like you work for them and not HP. Adecco didn't have anything to do with me. I sometimes went weeks with out seeing, talking to, or hearing about my Adecco manager.
signed agreements stating that they understood that were not employees and were not entitled to benefits.
Good point. I signed such an agreement, as did Jennifer Miller. That doesn't make the agreement legal. If a worker must sign a document as a condition of employement that says we can shaft you when we need to, then does that mean the agreement is legal? Just because I sign something does not mean the company legally could make me sign it, either through my contract agency, or directly from the company.
Except the contractors in this case are classified as "Managed-Service" by HP to avoid that necessary 3 month time off period. Why? So HP doesn't have to deal with turn over and other undesirable effects of a temporary work force.
In Idaho (or possible due to company rules) the ETW (true temp contractors) can work 2 years, but then must take 90 days away and off site from HP before they can return to work at HP. This could with throgh the same contract agency at a different company, or simply unemployeed.
The next step of the case would be to show that if HP had withheld the income tax and treated the contractors, legally, as an amployee, then the company would have a double standard for the employees, which is prohibited by their standards of conduct and by their HR guidelines.
All 5 of your points are true in the case of contract workers at the Boise HP site (and many other sites), and specifically for Jennifer Miller (mentioned in the article).
Similar rules apply in the states but few (if any to my knowledge) have challenged them. This is the first for HP as far as I can tell.
If you do a little arithmetic you will find that the amount you get paid over an FTE employee far exceeds the dollar value of the gym, paid vacation, insurance etc. If that's not the case you are with the wrong agency. Forget the award ceremony and take yourself out to dinner every time you deposit a paycheck. By being a contractor you are beating the system. Don't let the system convince you otherwise.
you are smoking a crack pipe that I want to share
This is not the case with the vast majority of contract workers at HP. Contractors get paid less, but the only work 40s (unless authorized for OT). The contract agency pays little if any vacation, and provides no health insurance, no matching retirement, and no other benefits perks or profit sharing (unless the profit sharing was fro mthe contract company).
The reason these workers are contract is because HP laid off the previous worker and hired someone else for the same position, or in some cases hired the same person through a contract agency to cut costs but get the same work done.
The employeese threatened with looming layoffs and the contractors forced to work for the only game in town have little choice in the matter.
The reason IBM used us was becasue you can get rid of contractors without offically getting rid of employees.
You hit our situation on the head. The process for firing / laying off a contractor is "hey you.... your fired. Clean out your desk and drop off your badge at secrity."
The process for firing / laying off an employee involves reviews, HR interviews, voluntary severance package offers, etc. It takes a lot of work. Because an contractor is not an employee but a "resource" all the rules setup to make sure a layoff is warrented and not doe to infighting or personal differences are tossed out the window.
Correct. None of the individuals involved in this suit (to my knowledge) are independent contractors. They all work for Manpower, Adecco, Veritest, etc. I worked directly with Jennifer Miller under the same contract agency so I have more than a passing knowledge of her workig situation.
HP, however, did not walk the same fence with me as with her because I never had the quailifications to be an employee and as a technician level worker only contract positions are expected of me.
I don't usually post to front page, or even YRO articles (what the crap is this doing in YRO?) but this article directly affects me.
Readers of my journal will note that I work at the Boise HP plant as a contractor. I actually worked with Jennifer Miller for all of my nearly 3 years on a managed-service contract. The "managed service" part is what HP calls the people they don't want to give employee status, but they don't want to have to lay off for 90 days after 2 years of work (like all the rest of the ETW classified contract workers, due to either state or internal policy). In other words,
Please read the article. The person in question worked directly with HP employees and made critical business decisions. She was a test lead. They say "this is a problem, fix it" for all sorts of products that pass through the QA test lab. She worked odd hours (along with the test teams she supervised) at the request of HP project managers, not at the request of her contract manager, who had nothing to do with the daily functions and responsibilities of her position.
There are many other engineers and managers in our group and across the rest of the site, that are hired as contractors instead of direct hire employees because HP makes the position open only to contractors, yet these positions do the same work as employees. Some times, the contract manager is in charge of, or directs the activities of, HP employee engineers as well as other contract workers.
Don't be too quick to dismiss the case as a bunch of whiny, greedy, under-qualified contractors too stupid to negotiate work as employees. HP does not provide the option. Their guidelines from the division level on down require a specific ratio of contracts to employees so that costs can be reduced, irregardless of the job responsibilities involved. I have personally witnessed HP managers articulating their quota goals for this ratio, though I can't off hand remember the exact figure (something like 3:1).
The situation in Boise is such that hundreds of employees were laid off on Carly's watch so that cost cutting could be implemented. These same positions were not eliminated. They were contracted out, in many cases to the same person so that HP could pay them less, eliminate all benefits, and reduce head count. HP no longer had hundreds of employees per team. They had a few dozen, with a large contract "resource" pool.
According to the article, many of the guidelines provided by the IRS have been violated routinely by HP. My contract company provides $0 of the tools, materials and other equipment necessary for my job. We all have HP administrative assistants responsible for ordering these materials and other office related supplies. We are required, or strongly urged, to work the schedule necessary to meet our project's deadlines. OT is paid, if approved, otherwise the contractor is free to leave when their hours are completed.
HP has been walking the legal line for years, but the problem is they are walking on the wrong side, and hoping that the fear of Wipro India is enough to keep the sheep (employees) and the lambs (contractors) scared of the big bad outsourcing wolf.
Just look at how many people today pay insane amounts on various fees and administartion costs on their index funds. And those people are stupid or greedy. The greedy go for the funds that promise horribly overestimated returns (15%) and the wise simply buy a no-load index fund. There is no reas and index fund needs administration costs. You buy one share of everything listed on the exchange. Done. That is it.
Regarding the rest of your post, thanks for your reasonsed and responsible thinking... up until the end. "So as long as the system doesn't need to be changed now I see no reason to change it now with the risk of a failed reform." That is just choosing to ignore the problem and see if it goes away. Everyone (including the article) agrees that the money in will eventually be less than the money out which means the trust fund will be drawn on. But the trust fund has already been borrowed by the Fed for general funds.
From the article... "The actuaries had assumed that from 1978 to 1982 inflation would total 28 percent; the actual figure would be 60 percent. And they had predicted that wages would grow by 13 percent after inflation, whereas, in fact, real wages didn't rise at all; they declined. "
This the (one of the many) problem(s) that were built into the system when it was created.
Slashdot Mirror
see... that just makes me want to tell that joke a million times in a row.... those whiny Bothans. That get what's comming to them.
jason
Spiffy. That is just neat. I can see myself trying that out if only I would recognize the changes. Now I don't have SoA so I cannot tell, but after reading these comments I'll be paying more attention to the music in my current game, Deus Ex II.
jason
I should thank the editors for actually including the link to the BBC article since a brain fart left me forgetting to include the link.
Any how. Crazy. First submission accepted for me!
But abotu the article.... there have been a couple of games I remember that I actually wanted the soundtrack. Starsiege: Tribes had some fun techno tracks that could be assigned to a level based on the map designer's settings. Also, and even better, is the Evil Genius music, which is a symphonic score straight from Austin Powers / James Bond. Great game. Great musical score.
jason
What about cell phone triangulation? This location information is built into many cell phones already and I can see it easily being included in devices. The benefit is that the device only needs to know aproximate locations and it doesn't have to send data, though it could be real sneeky and do it any wya. There would not need to be any additional cost for this system because cell transmission below a certain packet size a forwarded with out incurring a charge. So as long as the device does a ping home and as long as the ping can be traced physically, the DVD company can know exactly where that device is.
jason
"You know... maybe we could all try and not be assholes? Just a thought."
;-)
Woh wohhhh.... slowdown cowboy. That is asking a lot for slashdot....
jason
This is not the case! The IRS has no say in the matter. To get bennies, the contractors must prove under benefits law, not tax law, that they are HP employees.
Yep I see you point quite clearely. I personally think the case will if anything only serve to accelerate outsourcing plans to India. Why bother with the fuzzy line locally when there is no confusion if the people line on the other side of the globe and work as a one stop software shop.
jason
I already know that I am not part of the possible contractors that this suit covers. Something of interest is this article regarding a presentation by HP senior counsel Mark DeMeester during the October 2003 meeting made it "apparent to those assembled that HP was violating the law in a manner that was virtually identical to the Microsoft case." In the suit, McClendon claims that points made by DeMeester indicated that HP was following in Microsoft's footsteps: - Having contractors supervised by HP managers. -Integrating contractors into the HP team. -Having contractors perform the same work as permanent HP employees. -Having contractors do the same job for as much as two years. -Using contractors for work critical to the delivery of core HP products. McClendon alleged that those present at the meeting were ordered to destroy any written notes or erase notes taken on laptops. He said they were told that "without a 'paper path' it would be difficult for a lawsuit to be decided against HP."
jason
In case no one else say it, the same paper also published an article describing a case brought by an HP Employee before the class-action suit was announced because of a demotion and pay cut because the employee stood up against the contracting policies at HP. I'll quote interesting bits...
Former project manager Mike McClendon alleges he was demoted and had his pay grade reduced after warning HP executives that by classifying long-time workers as contractors the company was risking an Internal Revenue Service investigation and a possible multimillion dollar lawsuit.
McClendon's lawsuit claimed that a presentation by HP senior counsel Mark DeMeester during the October 2003 meeting made it "apparent to those assembled that HP was violating the law in a manner that was virtually identical to the Microsoft case."
In the suit, McClendon claims that points made by DeMeester indicated that HP was following in Microsoft's footsteps by:
Having contractors supervised by HP managers.
Integrating contractors into the HP team.
Having contractors perform the same work as permanent HP employees.
Having contractors do the same job for as much as two years.
Using contractors for work critical to the delivery of core HP products.
McClendon alleged that those present at the meeting were ordered to destroy any written notes or erase notes taken on laptops. He said they were told that "without a 'paper path' it would be difficult for a lawsuit to be decided against HP."
McClendon alleges HP has ordered him not to discuss the suit, and he has declined do so beyond what is in the suit. He is asking the court to lift that gag order.
This isn't just something that the greedy contractors are worrying about.
jason
Oh yeah.... I remember those announcements. Carly said that the Services business was the next biggest thing for HP and that we were going to take on IBM and SAP, etc. Then the Services division sucked money while Imaging & Printing still generated money like always.
jason
I Am being paid a significant premium for the instability of contracting, almost 50%.
Except that no one working through Adecco or Manpower or Veritest (etc) gets paid that premium. We work for less than the employees. I know this isn't their legal fault it is the market conditions. HP can do this because the force positions to be contract only instead of direct hire. They have quotas to make group X a Y:Z ratio of employees to contractors no matter what the work is, who does it, or for how long.
jason
Correct. I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpower and we do in fact get a W-2 from Manpower. The problem is that HP forces the position to be contract by not opening it up for hire as an employee because they do not want to pay for an employee. As a contractor we earn less per hour take home than the employees. This ignores their benefits which are not provided by the contract agency. If you want health coverage, we pay $600 / month for a family coverage. IF we want a 401(k) Manpower provides an account, but does not match anything. If we want stock options Manpower will let us buy the options from them.
jason
Since I work at Boise HP with Jennifer Miller I'll jump in here...
Contractors are paid less than employees and have to pay the contract agency for any benefits if they want them. Jennifer was in a position called a Managed-Service so that HP could avoid having to lay off the contractor after 2 years of work. I don't know how the managed-service classification got started but it clearely was meant to skirt the employment rules.
Things at Boise HP sound very similar to your situation. There are few if any other games in town. The ones that were able to leave for other employment were absolutely brilliant or lucky to get a position. THe ones that stay as contractors stay because no one else in the valley does what they know how to do.
We have one choice. Leave the field we are in for something entirely unrelated. That is what I am doing.
jason
In this case we get a W2 from Manpower (I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpwoer at HP). Our taxes were paid by Manpower as were all "benefits" which included only a week paid vacation. Every other benefit was charged to the contractor. Want Health coverage for a family? That will cost you $400 / month. Want a 401(k)? Great. We will set it up for you and let you deposit as much as you legally can (nothing is matched by them). Want stock options? Buy them your self.
jason
In our case, there is no option. I worked with Jennifer Miller through Manpower at the Boise HP plant. We worked in their cubes next to their employees, under their guidelines, and on their equipment. There is no option to work anywhere else as contractors are not allowed to have home DSL/Cable connections so that we can "work from home".
Just today two employees I work with sent out messages that they were working from home and would be available via email and internal messaging clients. No contractors are afforded this luxury. We have to be physically present to clock any time.
jason
Correct. Manpower provides a few opportunities to feel like a "Manpower Employee" by constantly refering to HP as "the customer" and NEVER as HP... like the contractors are somehow providing a service to HP that HP wouldn't be doing if the contract agency wern't there to shield them.
My first interview at HP was not even with Manpower / Adecco. They just passed on the qualified resumes to HP and I interviewed with a contract manager and HP manager at the same time in the same room. I have worked for Adecco and Manpower at the Boise HP site and both opperate about the same. One difference is that Manpower provides some skeleton of a company to make you feel like you work for them and not HP. Adecco didn't have anything to do with me. I sometimes went weeks with out seeing, talking to, or hearing about my Adecco manager.
jason
signed agreements stating that they understood that were not employees and were not entitled to benefits.
Good point. I signed such an agreement, as did Jennifer Miller. That doesn't make the agreement legal. If a worker must sign a document as a condition of employement that says we can shaft you when we need to, then does that mean the agreement is legal? Just because I sign something does not mean the company legally could make me sign it, either through my contract agency, or directly from the company.
jason
Except the contractors in this case are classified as "Managed-Service" by HP to avoid that necessary 3 month time off period. Why? So HP doesn't have to deal with turn over and other undesirable effects of a temporary work force.
In Idaho (or possible due to company rules) the ETW (true temp contractors) can work 2 years, but then must take 90 days away and off site from HP before they can return to work at HP. This could with throgh the same contract agency at a different company, or simply unemployeed.
jason
The next step of the case would be to show that if HP had withheld the income tax and treated the contractors, legally, as an amployee, then the company would have a double standard for the employees, which is prohibited by their standards of conduct and by their HR guidelines.
jason
All 5 of your points are true in the case of contract workers at the Boise HP site (and many other sites), and specifically for Jennifer Miller (mentioned in the article).
Similar rules apply in the states but few (if any to my knowledge) have challenged them. This is the first for HP as far as I can tell.
jason
If you do a little arithmetic you will find that the amount you get paid over an FTE employee far exceeds the dollar value of the gym, paid vacation, insurance etc. If that's not the case you are with the wrong agency. Forget the award ceremony and take yourself out to dinner every time you deposit a paycheck. By being a contractor you are beating the system. Don't let the system convince you otherwise.
you are smoking a crack pipe that I want to share
This is not the case with the vast majority of contract workers at HP. Contractors get paid less, but the only work 40s (unless authorized for OT). The contract agency pays little if any vacation, and provides no health insurance, no matching retirement, and no other benefits perks or profit sharing (unless the profit sharing was fro mthe contract company).
The reason these workers are contract is because HP laid off the previous worker and hired someone else for the same position, or in some cases hired the same person through a contract agency to cut costs but get the same work done.
The employeese threatened with looming layoffs and the contractors forced to work for the only game in town have little choice in the matter.
jason
The reason IBM used us was becasue you can get rid of contractors without offically getting rid of employees.
You hit our situation on the head. The process for firing / laying off a contractor is "hey you.... your fired. Clean out your desk and drop off your badge at secrity."
The process for firing / laying off an employee involves reviews, HR interviews, voluntary severance package offers, etc. It takes a lot of work. Because an contractor is not an employee but a "resource" all the rules setup to make sure a layoff is warrented and not doe to infighting or personal differences are tossed out the window.
jason
Correct. None of the individuals involved in this suit (to my knowledge) are independent contractors. They all work for Manpower, Adecco, Veritest, etc. I worked directly with Jennifer Miller under the same contract agency so I have more than a passing knowledge of her workig situation.
HP, however, did not walk the same fence with me as with her because I never had the quailifications to be an employee and as a technician level worker only contract positions are expected of me.
jason
I don't usually post to front page, or even YRO articles (what the crap is this doing in YRO?) but this article directly affects me.
Readers of my journal will note that I work at the Boise HP plant as a contractor. I actually worked with Jennifer Miller for all of my nearly 3 years on a managed-service contract. The "managed service" part is what HP calls the people they don't want to give employee status, but they don't want to have to lay off for 90 days after 2 years of work (like all the rest of the ETW classified contract workers, due to either state or internal policy). In other words,
Please read the article. The person in question worked directly with HP employees and made critical business decisions. She was a test lead. They say "this is a problem, fix it" for all sorts of products that pass through the QA test lab. She worked odd hours (along with the test teams she supervised) at the request of HP project managers, not at the request of her contract manager, who had nothing to do with the daily functions and responsibilities of her position.
There are many other engineers and managers in our group and across the rest of the site, that are hired as contractors instead of direct hire employees because HP makes the position open only to contractors, yet these positions do the same work as employees. Some times, the contract manager is in charge of, or directs the activities of, HP employee engineers as well as other contract workers.
Don't be too quick to dismiss the case as a bunch of whiny, greedy, under-qualified contractors too stupid to negotiate work as employees. HP does not provide the option. Their guidelines from the division level on down require a specific ratio of contracts to employees so that costs can be reduced, irregardless of the job responsibilities involved. I have personally witnessed HP managers articulating their quota goals for this ratio, though I can't off hand remember the exact figure (something like 3:1).
The situation in Boise is such that hundreds of employees were laid off on Carly's watch so that cost cutting could be implemented. These same positions were not eliminated. They were contracted out, in many cases to the same person so that HP could pay them less, eliminate all benefits, and reduce head count. HP no longer had hundreds of employees per team. They had a few dozen, with a large contract "resource" pool.
According to the article, many of the guidelines provided by the IRS have been violated routinely by HP. My contract company provides $0 of the tools, materials and other equipment necessary for my job. We all have HP administrative assistants responsible for ordering these materials and other office related supplies. We are required, or strongly urged, to work the schedule necessary to meet our project's deadlines. OT is paid, if approved, otherwise the contractor is free to leave when their hours are completed.
HP has been walking the legal line for years, but the problem is they are walking on the wrong side, and hoping that the fear of Wipro India is enough to keep the sheep (employees) and the lambs (contractors) scared of the big bad outsourcing wolf.
jason
Just look at how many people today pay insane amounts on various fees and administartion costs on their index funds. And those people are stupid or greedy. The greedy go for the funds that promise horribly overestimated returns (15%) and the wise simply buy a no-load index fund. There is no reas and index fund needs administration costs. You buy one share of everything listed on the exchange. Done. That is it.
Regarding the rest of your post, thanks for your reasonsed and responsible thinking... up until the end. "So as long as the system doesn't need to be changed now I see no reason to change it now with the risk of a failed reform." That is just choosing to ignore the problem and see if it goes away. Everyone (including the article) agrees that the money in will eventually be less than the money out which means the trust fund will be drawn on. But the trust fund has already been borrowed by the Fed for general funds.
jason
From the article... "The actuaries had assumed that from 1978 to 1982 inflation would total 28 percent; the actual figure would be 60 percent. And they had predicted that wages would grow by 13 percent after inflation, whereas, in fact, real wages didn't rise at all; they declined. "
This the (one of the many) problem(s) that were built into the system when it was created.
jason