The Coalition to Preserve the Defined Benefit System, a newly formed lobbying group of 57 companies, including R.

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The NFL has been steadfast on its plan to switch the referees from a defined benefit system to a 401 (k).

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The plan would transition Medicare from a defined-benefit system, in which the government is on the hook for whatever services seniors desire, to a defined-contribution system, in which the government pays out a dollar amount for health services, growing with inflation, incentivizing all participants in the system to prioritize health spending to those services that are most valuable.

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It makes no sense, but this is the outcome of a defined benefit retirement system run amok.

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But history suggests that the politicians need to tread carefully: Congressional limits on how much benefit the bosses could get for themselves contributed to the now much lamented decline of the traditional defined benefit pension system, warns Sylvester J.

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Given the complexity and long term nature of pension investment results, a massive investigative effort must be undertaken before we can answer how we got to where we are today: on the verge of the collapse of the defined benefit pension system.

FORBES: Freakonomics: The Hidden Side of Managing Money ( September 2, 2005 )