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[spydglide]

  Thanx for the offer....but some cash in my pocket, a road map and a long weekend off and I'm good to go....I've always managed to get where I'm going and make it back home with out all the Hi-Tech goodies that seem so important too many these days...and oh yeah...I alaways leave my cell phone home too...instead I preform routine maintenance myslf on my bikes and carry a tool kit ....for those unexpected things that happen from time to time....and again, for over 35 years...I always make it home

Ahhhhhh, a 'purist'.  Bet you don't listen to music on the bike either.  har!  spyder

[RedFXR2]

....but some cash in my pocket, a road map and a long weekend off and I'm good to go....I've always managed to get where I'm going and make it back home with out all the Hi-Tech goodies that seem so important too many these days...and oh yeah...I alaways leave my cell phone home too...

I'm with you on all that.  Well, I do carry a cell phone.

My car has built-in navigation and bluetooth.  I never use either.  Would have rather kept the cost they added to the price.  Never needed them allthese years.

[RedFXR2]

Ahhhhhh, a 'purist'.  Bet you don't listen to music on the bike either.  har!  spyder

Suer I do.  The "Potato-Potato Waltz".  Vary the RPM's a bit and i'ts like changing the disc on a CD player.

[AXIL]

  true music to my ear.  i only have one. no my name is not vincent.    axil

[inthewind729]

Corporate Harley Davidson arrogant?
    Ya mean like charging $16 for entrance into its new museum?
     Wheels Thru Time in Maggie Valley and the J&P museum in Iowa put the HD museum to shame at way less cost.
    Ya mean charging $30-35 for T-shirts so they can get free advertising on top of the $25 -30 profit off each shirt.
    Yeah they got some great marketing ideas geared toward people that will never own a HD motorcycle while screwing the people that have kept them going.
     I love the bike but aint to thrilled with the company. Sorta like enjoying the paintings of a great artist and not caring for the guy that cut off his ear. Threw that in for Axil's benefit hahahahahaha.
     By the way I was barred for 3 yrs from my local HD boutique for saying that "It's a shame that I can walk into a Harley shop and the only knucklehead I see is the owner"

Ride safe to one day ride free
Corky

PS   Thanks Naitram

[tazmun]

Taz, the only pensions I'm aware of that are truly government backed are actual government pensions.  There is an agency that guarantees private employer pensions, but it isn't funded by the USA, it's funded by premiums paid by the participating companies, the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation.  
http://www.pbgc.gov/
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"PBGC is a federal corporation created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974. It currently protects the pensions of nearly 44 million American workers and retirees in more than 29,000 private single-employer and multiemployer defined benefit pension plans. PBGC receives no funds from general tax revenues. Operations are financed by insurance premiums set by Congress and paid by sponsors of defined benefit plans, investment income, assets from pension plans trusteed by PBGC, and recoveries from the companies formerly responsible for the plans."
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The fact that the fearless leaders of our country have tweaked the rules on funding levels over the years to benefit big business (and therefore themselves) is what may lead to the need for Sugar Daddy to prop up this entity.  Pension trust funds are supposed to be 100% funded, based on actuarial estimates of each plans obligations.  Over the years, starting back in the 80's I believe, companies have cried poverty and the government has allowed them to either change the accounting rules for the funds or to actually pull money out of them.  Congress made changes in 2006 to force companies to fully fund their plans over the next several years, but we are already seeing companies crying to them about suspending required payments into the funds due to the poor economy (funny how those executive bonuses keep rolling though).  

This discussion came up once before, and once again I will share my opinion on the subject of pension plans.  Those of us who worked in companies with defined benefit pension plans did not enjoy the fat salaries of those folks who had to rely on their own savings or the various 401k, 403b, etc. plans.  The company included the cost of benefits and pensions when doing annual competitive salary studies, and I can personally assure you that my salary was significantly less than folks with similar duties and responsibilities in companies that didn't offer pensions.  In other words, my pension isn't some freebie from a benevolent employer that tax payers may have to subsidize; I earned every penny of it (and even funded part of it with my own extra contributions).  Even though my pension was 113% funded at the end of 2006, I'm just as nervous as those who had underfunded plans because I cannot trust our government and the bankruptcy courts to protect the little guy against the corporations.  Ask the retirees from the steel industry how well they were protected, as they take one or two jobs in their old age to make up for the screwing they received.

Jerry


Jerry,

 I gotta tell you, I agreed with what you said, but there is a lope hole in every plan.
Please read this:

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/up-next-a-huge-pension-bailout.aspx

Tazmun