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America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

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Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#241

Post by Bartweiss »

mcv wrote: post #230
Bartweiss wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this not happen in Europe also? It's rare for US employees to lose everything , but fairly common for pensions to be reduced to (Although I just looked, and apparently Maersk's move was specific to a UK division; perhaps this is another case where UK law sits halfway between the US and Europe? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/2831055/... )

I don't know about other European countries, but in Netherland, it's a major cause for national alarm when a major pension fund is 10% short. This is something that happened after the mortgage crisis (because the money had been invested, and the stock market was way down), and there was a big discussion about whether people should pay extra, or pensions should be cut, or something else. It's certainly not common, and…

In fairness, this is part of why the US has moved away from employer-managed pension funds. Pensions are still common in government, universities, and certain lifetime-employment industries (e.g. power plants). But even in good, white-collar jobs there's been a shift to 401k matching, where you get a personal retirement fund which your employer funds with some amount of money beyond your normal salary.

There are a lot of reasons for that switch: it saves on the administrative headaches of having pensions from several companies, it encourages private retirement savings (because it's "matching"), it saves companies money (because many people don't contribute), and it lets companies keep predictable finances (because it's an investment paid up front, not a lifetime or fixed-dollar obligation). But on the employee side, a lot of the reason people with bargaining power accept it is that they trust 401k funds to stay safe (except from stock market crashes), and don't trust companies to fulfill pension obligations.

The downside, as with healthcare and many other things in the US, is that when "good" jobs circumvent the problem, it takes away most of the social pressure to actually solve it for everyone.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#242

Post by thorwasdfasdf »

t0ddbonzalez wrote: post #238
thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dairy consumption is very strongly linked to prostate cancer: Dr. Miller gave a huge talk about this. You can find it on Youtube. Also, there's the China study, one of the largest ever studies in china showing that dairy and meat consumption are strongly linked to cancers and diseases even within a genetically homogenous population. some portions of the population had cancer rates of 400 times higher than other areas…

> "dairy consumption is very strongly linked to prostate cancer: Dr. Miller gave a huge talk about this. You can find it on Youtube." Who is Dr Miller. Does he present his research in medical journals, or just on YouTube? Got a link to a research paper? "Look it up on YouTube" isn't a valid response when someone asks for proof of something... > " Also, there's the China study..." China's a big place. Lots of studies…

Most of the calcium you get from milk just ends up getting pissed out. they've measured this many times and found that the body doesn't even absorb most of the calcium from the milk. You can get calcium from many many many sources: nearly all the fruits and vegetables have it in abundance.

This will shock you, but It's a fact that no animal produces it's own protein. Protein gets produced in Plants, that's where it comes from. Animals get their protein from plants. If you get it from a cow through milk or eating the cow meat, your just eating 2nd hand protein. Look at all the strongest and biggest animals in the world: Apes, Gorillas, Cows, Elephants, Rhinos they all eat plants and get nearly all their protein from plants.

Milk is actually terrible for your bones. There are many studies showing that it is linked to increased bone fractures in elderly people and also linked to increased cardiovascular risk.

I know this all sounds shocking, but if you want to know the truth, you should watch "Forks over knives" or watch "What the health". both can be found on netflix.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#243

Post by thorwasdfasdf »

t0ddbonzalez wrote: post #238
thorwasdfasdf wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

dairy consumption is very strongly linked to prostate cancer: Dr. Miller gave a huge talk about this. You can find it on Youtube. Also, there's the China study, one of the largest ever studies in china showing that dairy and meat consumption are strongly linked to cancers and diseases even within a genetically homogenous population. some portions of the population had cancer rates of 400 times higher than other areas…

> "dairy consumption is very strongly linked to prostate cancer: Dr. Miller gave a huge talk about this. You can find it on Youtube." Who is Dr Miller. Does he present his research in medical journals, or just on YouTube? Got a link to a research paper? "Look it up on YouTube" isn't a valid response when someone asks for proof of something... > " Also, there's the China study..." China's a big place. Lots of studies…

As for "the china study" it's not some small study: "The study they created included 367 variables, 65 counties in China, and 6,500 adults (who completed questionnaires, blood tests, etc.). “When we were done, we had more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between lifestyle, diet, and disease variables.”"

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#244

Post by klipt »

rsynnott wrote: post #171
jononomo wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just think you're damaging your kids by not giving them milk, which is the most nutritious thing you can feed a kid. Also, your kids may be lactose intolerant due to other stuff in their diet, like gluten or other toxins in plant-based foods that lead to a leaky gut.

Realistically, it is a lot more likely that the kids are lactose intolerant (over half of humanity) than that they have celiac disease (under 1% of humanity). Also, there's a fairly foolproof test for lactose intolerance.

Over half of humanity become lactose intolerant as adults.

Almost no infants are lactose intolerant, for obvious evolutionary reasons (mother's milk is full of lactose).

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#245

Post by mcv »

Bartweiss wrote: post #241
mcv wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about other European countries, but in Netherland, it's a major cause for national alarm when a major pension fund is 10% short. This is something that happened after the mortgage crisis (because the money had been invested, and the stock market was way down), and there was a big discussion about whether people should pay extra, or pensions should be cut, or something else. It's certainly not common, and…

In fairness, this is part of why the US has moved away from employer-managed pension funds. Pensions are still common in government, universities, and certain lifetime-employment industries (e.g. power plants). But even in good, white-collar jobs there's been a shift to 401k matching, where you get a personal retirement fund which your employer funds with some amount of money beyond your normal salary. There are a lo…

Getting it away from the company's budget is definitely an important step, but from what I understand, both old-style US pensions and 401k still fall short of the Dutch pension system, which has companies paying the money for the pensions into independent pension funds, so the pension isn't threatened by bankruptcy or mismanagement from the company, and the pension fund treats it as life insurance that keeps paying as long as you live.

It's still not perfect; stock market drops and sudden increases in life expectancy can mean a pension fund won't be fully able to cover its obligations. This happened after the 2008 recession, so new laws demand that the funds need to aim for more leeway in their funding.

Of course that means that with a good economy, the fund may end up with a lot of money it's not obligated to pay. For this reason there's a movement to give people a larger share of this risk, both on the beneficial end (when the economy grows more than expected), and effect of economic downturns (which is going to suck for people who retire during an economic downturn).

This is actually what my pension does: I have a special kind of pension fund for self-employed freelancers where I seem to own the money in the fund and carry its risks, whereas normally it's the pension that owns the money and the risk. I'm not entirely sure how that works tax-wise, because it is still tax-deductible as far as I know. But if the investments do well, I get more money, and nobody's bankruptcy can cost me my money, which might still be a theoretical (though not actual) risk for a standard pension fund.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#246

Post by epc »

saiya-jin wrote: post #176
epc wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Traditional “defined benefit” employee pensions in the US were treated as a balance sheet line item. There wasn't a separate, fenced off, account where funds were secured. In the 1980s it became popular for “corporate raiders” (today’s “private equity”) to target companies with mediocre corporate results but well funded pensions. Because the pension obligations weren't sequestered, you could legitimately take over a…

Is this still true for majority of the US working force? As an European I find it ridiculous that your pension could be wiped out like that, and not be completely separated from employer either managed by state, or dedicated pension fund manager (what I prefer but citizens have no say in this, you have to move state to change this). Companies go bankrupt all the times, small or big. If it gets wiped out, what happens…

Mostly, no, because defined benefit plans have been all but killed off. Most union jobs have a defined benefit plan, but union representation in the US is under 20% I believe. Pension plans are "insured" by a Federal plan (PBGC) but it does not guarantee 100% coverage and has been under severe strain as the number of pension plans drops.

Re: America's Biggest Milk Producers Are Going Bankrupt

#247

Post by ubermonkey »

theflyinghorse wrote: post #175
alistairSH wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Tucker Carlson is not news. He's a pundit/commentator who has a talk show. Neither is John Oliver. I'd almost say they're flip sides of the same coin, except Carlson trends WAY right (often right into conspiracy theory land) and Oliver is more center-left.

Oliver is fairly far left wheres Tucker is closer to center

LOLNO.

Tucker is right wing. He also has a very casual relationship with the truth.

Oliver is definitely to the left, but he also doesn't lie.

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