United Default Argues for ‘Ownership Society’

Michael Hiltzik, in his column “Now Is a Bad Time for Private Accounts” (Golden State, May 19), gets it backward. The pension default of United Airlines is exactly why an ownership society is the least risk.

The greatest risk you can have with your retirement money is to have it not be under your control but instead under the control of either politicians who will use it to influence popular elections or a business that has a statistically low chance of surviving you. Very few businesses survive even 50 years. Changing marketplaces and technologies make yesterday’s powerhouses today’s bankruptcies.

Leland Thoburn

Tujunga