Re: [Pen-l] Crybaby vultures

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Perelman wrote:
> The ranking of debts in bankruptcy court seems rather arbitrary rather
> than a matter of justice. Why should a worker who earned a pension after
> 30 years of hard labor on an assembly line have fewer rights than a
> speculator who buys a depressed bond in the hopes of making a profit?

back when the UAW had significant power, the auto companies figured
out how to deal with it: instead of giving raises now, promise
payments in the future (pensions) or as health benefits (i.e.,
insurance). It made these "deferred compensation" promises, just as it
made promises to bond-holders. Then the companies -- like a lot of
other US companies -- wanted to use bankruptcy to break these
promises. But not the promises to the bond-holders, of course, because
those promises are sacred. Money rules.
-- 
Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own
way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
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