Very nice... would work for me. We have a few friends with manufactured retirement homes... and all are very nice.
I would pick a bone with you on the first part though... in my view pensions didn't necessarily go by the wayside... they just morphed into 401k matches and DC company contributions.
My next to last employer had a defined benefit pension and a 401k with a match. My last employer had a 401k with a match and a defined contribution plan where they contributed an amount equal to 8% of my earnings to a non-contributory 401k-like investment (I chose how it was invested).
To me the DC plan was similar except it laid the investment risk on me rather than the pension plan.
IMO the reality of the problem is that as defined benefit plans dwindled and were curtailed, 401ks and DC plans emerged... we were all told of the need to save because the pension leg of the stool was crumbling... but many chose not to save and are paying the consequences now.
+1
The evil mega-corp I work for is generous. I get a 401K match + company
funded DC pension + company funded "Retiree Reimbursement account"
contributions for retiree medical.
In 2004, my employer mega-corp wanted, like every other company, to shed
the uncertainty and risk of the company pension and the company retiree
medical insurance. It was not motivated by cost cutting or reducing current
employee costs, it was shedding of risk and placing it on the employees
instead. They replaced the company DB pension with a cash balance DC plan
and the company retiree medical benefit with an account to pay for post-retirement
medical costs. The shift was revenue neutral as far as current expenditures.
The net effects on the bottom line for employees have been mostly positive. I
don't have a defined benefit waiting for me in the pension, but I do have a
portable lump sum of money to convert to an annuity at better than market
rates or withdraw as a lump sum of equivalent value. I don't have subsidized
medical insurance, but I do have an account with money earmarked to buy
insurance - either company plan or 3rd party - once I retire.
A lot (most?) companies cheap out on the level of 401K match they provide,
but the concept of 401K being a replacement for a pension is valid. If given a
choice between a well run, low expense 401K with a good match or the typical
old DB pension that is now lauded as the retirement gold standard, I personally
would choose the 401K plan. I have had experience with the typical old style
private DB pension plan, having vested in 3 different plans early in my career.
I have since lump-summed out of all of them and good riddance.
