[Marxism] risky pensions

["acpollack2@xxxxxxxx" <acpollack2@xxxxxxxx>]

Today?s Times notes the difference in the soundness of traditional pension 
plans investing in bonds and those investing in stocks recommended by Wall 
Street advisers. (?UNDONE BY MARKET RISK: A Premature Sunset for Pension 
Plans??, By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH, 
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/28/weekinreview/28wals.html?oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=).
  The example it uses is a Texas teachers? fund, but a month or so ago a 
similar comparison was made between a healthy Teamster regional plan, invested 
in real estate, and one in deep trouble which, under government trusteeship, 
was handed over to Wall Street and invested in stocks.

Meanwhile Bush is about to do the equivalent to the nation?s pension plan, i.e. 
Social Security, and the Times also reveals today that his plan for personal 
investment accounts will require massive borrowing.  So not only will the 
individual accounts be risky but the net macroeconomic effect will be to take 
funds away from saving that could be used for other purposes. 
(http://nytimes.com/2004/11/28/politics/28secure.html?ei=5094&en=cd5a720c6da1c654&hp=&ex=1101704400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position=)

At the end of the first article the author reports: ?Some pension specialists 
... argue that without the incentives to manage pensions aggressively, 
employers and Wall Street would turn their backs on pensions entirely.... But 
funds that ignored those incentives all along - like the '50 fund and Texas 
Municipal - are doing just fine.?

As corporations and the government continue to endanger our pensions, private 
and public, labor is going to have to find a way to take management?s hands off 
our money and to demand a unified national pension plan at decent levels, under 
the supervision and control of workers.  The first steps in getting there are 
to defend Social Security; to act in solidarity with those, like airline 
workers, currently fighting to save their pensions; and to rebuild the Labor 
Party and promote its social security plank.


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