Books about Benefits from Amazon.com

A crisis is looming for baby boomers and anyone else who hopes to retire in the coming years. In When I'm Sixty-Four, Teresa Ghilarducci, the nation's leading authority on the economics of retirement, explains how to confront this crisis head-on, revealing the causes behind the increasingly precarious economics of old age in America and proposing a bold plan to guarantee retirement security for every working citizen.

Retirement is one of the hallmarks of a prosperous, civilized market economy. Yet in America today Social Security is on the ropes. Government and employers are dismantling pension security, forcing older people to work longer. The federal government spends billions in exemptions for 401(k)s and other voluntary retirement accounts, yet retirement savings for most workers is falling. Ghilarducci takes an unflinching look at the eroding economic structure of retirement in America--and what she finds is alarming. She exposes the failures of pension regulators and the false hopes of privatized Social Security. She tells the ugly truth about risky 401(k) plans, do-it-yourself retirement schemes, and companies like Enron that have left employees without any retirement savings. Ghilarducci puts forward a sweeping plan to revive the retirement-income system, a plan that will ensure that, after forty years of work, every American will receive 70 percent of their preretirement earnings, guaranteed for life. No other book makes such a persuasive case for overhauling the pension and Social Security system in order to provide older Americans with the financial stability they have earned and deserve.

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From the bestselling author of Buffett, When Genius Failed, and Origins of the Crash, a wake-up call to the pension and retirement crisis facing America and the road map for a way out

In While America Aged, bestselling author Roger Lowenstein explains how corporations and governments ran up ruinous pension and health-care promises to workers—promises that are now coming due and that will hit America like a tsunami if nothing is done.

Negotiating high benefits means gambling with future finances—and when the farm gets sold out from underneath major corporations or public institutions, it affects all of us, and in ways we might not imagine. With his trademark narrative panache, Lowenstein unravels the truth about how pensions work in America and illuminates the impending crisis. While America Aged is comprised of three fascinating case studies— each an object lesson and a compelling historical saga. The first goes back to the early days of the United Auto Workers and its crusading leader, Walter Reuther, to tell the story of how pensions and health-care obligations destroyed the American auto industry, in particular General Motors.

Lowenstein then shifts the scene to New York City to tell the story of the rise of public pensions and public sector unions through the vehicle of the Communist-led Transport Workers Union. Once again, justifiable benefits were followed by outrageous ones, such as the right to retire at age fifty. The saga reached a dramatic climax in 2005, when workers responded to proposed pension cutbacks with a massive strike that brought New YorkÂ’s subways and buses to a screeching halt days before Christmas.

In the concluding episode, Lowenstein visits a metropolis even more reckless in doling out benefits—San Diego. Desperate not to impose higher taxes, city officials in this highly conservative enclave cut a series of deals with unions to short-change the retirement system and use pension funds to run the city. A massive scandal ensued—two mayors resigned, officials were indicted, and San Diego lost its bond rating. Lowenstein warns that the pension wars that erupted in Detroit, New York City, and San Diego are only the first. But he also recognizes that workers are entitled to decent security in their retirement—a critical problem as the country ages. While America Aged explains how we came to this crisis, and it also proposes a way out. Arming readers with knowledge of the consequences of doing nothing, While America Aged, first and foremost, a call to action..
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Drink less, crave less and nip your problem drinking in the bud with the easy Drink/Link Moderate Drinking Program in this book! Drink/Link has helped thousands of drinkers worldwide to control drinking and prevent alcoholism since 1988. Over 80% of the drinkers who have completed this program have either cut their drinking in half or significantly reduced it! No meetings, drugs, belief in a higher power or professional help are required for you to succeed.

First, you learn five healthy drinking guidelines. Then you're given clinically-proven strategies and techniques to help you stay within those guidelines. You'll learn to manage alcohol craving, how to slow down and pace your drinking, pre-plan for drinking occasions, learn from you slips and resolve issues that drive you to drink so they don't lead to binge drinking. Alcohol will become less important to you and you'll automatically drink less.

Drink/Link is the first moderate drinking program registered with the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and has been recognized in many publications, including Time Magazine, ABCNews.com, the New York Post, Esquire and the Scripps Howard News Service..
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''Studio Thinking [is] a vision not only of learning in the arts but what could be learning most anywhere.'' -- From the Foreword by David N. Perkins, Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Senior Co-Director of Harvard Project Zero

''Hetland and her colleagues reveal dozens of practical measures that could be adopted by any arts program, inside or outside of the school.This is a bold new step in arts education.'' -- David R. Olson, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto

''Will be at the top of the list of essential texts in arts education. I know of no other work in art education with this combination of authenticity and insight.'' -- Lars Lindström, Stockholm Institute of Education

Many people believe that art education is important, but few can say exactly why. Here, at last, are the results of the first in-depth research on the "habits of mind" that are instilled by studying art-habits the authors argue have positive impacts on student learning across the curriculum. Studio Thinking provides art teachers with a research-based language for describing what they intend to teach and what students learn. This language will help advocates explain arts education to policymakers, help art teachers develop and refine their teaching practices, and help educators in other disciplines learn from existing practices in arts education..
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• A balanced, comprehensive guide to routine childhood vaccinations that offers parents the information they need to make the right choices for their child.

• Fairly examines the pros and cons of this highly charged issue.

Deciding whether or when to vaccinate a child is one of the most important--and most difficult--health-care decisions a parent will ever make. The recent increase in the number of vaccinations recommended and the concurrent controversies about whether vaccinations are safe or even effective have left many parents confused and concerned.

Midwife, herbalist, and mother of four, Aviva Jill Romm sifts through the spate of current research on vaccine safety and efficacy and offers a sensible, balanced discussion of the pros and cons of each routine childhood vaccination. She presents the full spectrum of options available to parents: full vaccination on a standardized or individualized schedule, selective vaccination, or no vaccinations at all. Negotiating daycare and school requirements, dealing with other parents, and traveling with an unvaccinated child are covered in detail. The book also suggests ways to strengthen children's immune systems and maintain optimal health and offers herbal and homeopathic remedies for childhood ailments. Emphasizing that no single approach is appropriate for every child, the author guides parents as they make the choices that are right for their child.

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