Robert J Samples Loc: Round Rock, Texas

While my father had a secure job during World War II as a pumper on an oil lease, his draft number was very close to being called near the end of 1942 and 43. He would have been called if there had been another draft round. During this period, not only was almost everything either being rationed or not available at all, but payrolls were frozen so that companies were not allowed to raise workers pay during the war.

However, after the end of war these restrictions were lifted, and all rationing ceased. However, it was some time before civilian products could again be made available to meet the pent up demand of the public who had been doing without for four years during the war. As one might imagine there was a tremendous demand and so what then happened was there were long lists of purchasers for almost everything that consumers wished to buy; appliances, new cars, furniture, everything that had been unavailable for four years.

The dealers for these items were besieged with demands and while price gouging or under the table bribes were offered, the starving public demand was slowly met over time. The first new automobiles were actually just the same as the 1941 models because the companies had not had time to make and tool up for new ones. It was a slow process to adjust from wartime manufacture of armaments to civilian demand and it took a period of two or three years. I was just a kid and no expert of these changes but from were we lived it seemed that everything got back to normal by around 1949 or 1950.

Commensurate with these changes, my father’s employer, Kewanee Oil Company, had profited during the war years for the continued supply of crude oil for the war effort. After the restrictions had been lifted, management decided to reward the workers for their war time efforts. Since at the time, there were no formal tax deferred retirement plans, the company generously decided to pay each employee one month’s pay for each year of employment. So, some of the employees got as much as a full year’s extra salary as a bonus in December, Merry Christmas! Talk about a spending spree, people were buying new cars, new appliances, new furniture, all kinds of spending sprees! Most had no experience with savings for their retirement. Now, there were some who were wise enough to save their bonuses, but most acted more like kids in a candy store and spent their bonuses as if there was no tomorrow.

It was a giddy time for all. It only lasted a couple of years. When cooler and wiser heads in management realized that what should have been placed in savings for retirement had been fueling a spending spree due to any lack of experience by their employees, they instituted a retirement plan which then place some common sense and savings for the workers. It was also about the same time as the U.S. Lawmakers began to formulate different retirement savings plans, such as Keogh, 401k, and such. It was a normal and predictable response that after four years of drought, that the civilian population would react by a spending splurge when finally allowed to do so, and having the extra cash only added fuel to the flames!

As one example of spending splurge, one family bought a new Buick. Almost immediately their teenage son stole this vehicle and disappeared. The next think they heard of him was he had wrecked it in New Mexico, the vehicle was totaled, turned upside down and the radio was still playing! They go out and buy another new Buick. It was a good thing that the company soon instituted a retirement plan to slow down and curtail the spendthrift action of employees who had no experience in savings for their future retirement. The initial plan of paying cash for one month’s pay for each year of employment was just too tempting for most to handle.

It was a good thing that wiser heads prevailed in establishing retirement plans and funneling these surplus funds into retirement plans. Otherwise, these workers with no experience in investing or saving for retirement would have faced retirement having to get by on SSI only. Most had little or no education, no experience in investing, and no idea about savings for their future retirement nor saving for it! Just Sayin….RJS

Catfish hunter Loc: Riggins idaho (Paradise)

Amen Robert. Even when I had an employer I was elf employed as well. I saved and invested wisely I feel. Bought real estate, put money in interest bearing investments and did fairly well. I’ve since drawn most of my money out of investments, outside of real estate, due to the current administration trying to figure out how to steal it all but I’m comfortable at my age. I know many who have done as you mentioned and just spent it as fast as they got their hands on it. I think that’s why so many people are seeking out unearned disabilities and this crazy unemployment debacle were seeing. I was taught that was “rocking chair money” and only the lazy would get the bigger share of it. Those that earned it or deserve it very seldom get much of it. We all see that. People bragging about their disability insurance check or their big unemployment check and how they spend it and get to do so many things with it. They don’t understand that SOMEONE has to come up with all that money they just get handed to them. I was taught to earn what I have and not ask for handouts. Seems to be the way of the world now. “I don’t feel like earning my money. I just want somebody to hand it to me. I’ll pay a tiny premium and just say I have a disability and I’ll be set for life.” Well that little premium they paid for a disability insurance check is now costing everyone else in that same plan who chooses not to collect and SOMEBODY ELSE always has to pay in one form or another. A private company is never going to just let you pay a couple bucks out of your check and then just give you a big check out of THEIR account when you decide it’s time to collect a check and go recreating with it. Everybody else’s “premiums are going to go up to pay for it.

Jarheadfishnfool Loc: Woodlake/Tulare ,Ca.

Stop beating the dead horse ,,bud