'Heartwarming' Viral Story Of Former GM Employee Who Lost His Pension Is Just A List Of Horrifying Societal Failures

A TikTok personality focused his immense influence this week on a former GM employee who, at 88 years old, was still working a 40-hour work week at a Michigan grocery store. While it is heartwarming how many good people have emptied their pockets to help the former veteran, who is forced to work after losing everything, the video is chilling as well. 

Samuel Weidenhofer makes a living by making grand gestures of help for people in need and posting videos about his exploits on TikTok. The Australian content creator followed a tip from a fan that led him to Ed Bambas, an 88-year-old employee of a Meijer grocery store in Brighton, Michigan. It's safe to say, Ed's had a hard time. A U.S. veteran, he worked for 40 years for General Motors before retiring in 1999. He lost a good pension when GM restructured following its 2009 bankruptcy, as well as his health insurance while his wife battled cancer. He told CBS News that he still visits his wife's grave every day, seven years after her passing. A decade after leaving the workforce, Bambas had to go back at it after losing his wife. 

GM went through a bankruptcy and bailout in 2009, which allowed the General to shed billions in pension fund requirements, mainly for non-union employees. It was especially bad if you worked for GM subsidiary Delphi. Court cases lingered in 2013, when a court ruling ripped $450 million in health benefits from retirees. It took five years and significant government investment, but GM is back to good financial health, even if those left in the wake of bad balance sheets are not. 

Bambas ended up penniless and back to work after years of caring for his ill wife. Now, through the magic of the internet, Bambas has many pennies. As of this writing, the GoFundMe for his retirement has reached $1,767,665 of its $1 million goal. 

This is being sold as a feel-good story, and I get it. I want Bambas to retire too. But this kind of stuff should also chill every American to the bone. We should want him to have been able to care for his dying loved one without worrying about ending up homeless due to massive debt from medical bills. We should be able to trust in the company and country he gave so much to would take care of him. There are countless people Bambas out there, living in desperation because of a completely shattered social contract. You could do everything right and still end up in a terrible position, swept aside by a system that does not need to keep its promises.