From: ww@nyxfer.UUCP
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Date: 26 Dec 92 19:54 PST
Subject: The Latest Bombshell:Pensions
Nf-ID: #N:8P9ewB2w165w@nyxfer.uucp:532909880:000:3060
Nf-From: nyxfer.uucp!ww    Dec 26 19:54:00 1992


Subject: The Latest Bombshell:Pensions
From: nyxfer!ww (Workers World Service)



Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit


Workers World Editorial:


THE LATEST BOMBSHELL--PENSIONS

Bells are ringing--and they're not the holiday variety. They're 
alarm bells that herald a huge crisis in the offing, one so big 
it will overshadow the savings and loan disaster. The looming 
horror is a pension fund crash.

Private pension plans insured by the federal Pension Benefit 
Guaranty Corp. are teetering on the edge of collapse, 
jeopardizing 40 million workers' retirement benefits. Hundreds of
plans--including those at some of the country's main steel, auto,
rubber and airline firms--are underfunded.

Deregulation and the accompanying intensification of competition,
a rush to capitalist restructuring and a merger-and-acquisition 
mania characterized the last dozen years in the capitalist 
economy. At every step along the way, big business looked to the 
workers to fund its profit-making strategies. One such method is 
taking money from pension funds to finance corporate buyouts, 
expansions, and so on.

Pension-fund raiding has been a less evident feature than layoffs
or plant closings. But it could ultimately hit workers just as 
hard--when they get to retirement age and find there are no 
pension benefits coming their way.

The dollar amount of pension liabilities has increased by 70 
percent in the last two years. The federal government's own 
pension plans are now underfinanced, too, as is Social Security, 
after a decade of Star Wars and other Pentagon spending. So today
PBGC pension funds in jeopardy total well over a trillion 
dollars.

If it all comes crashing down, it will resemble the S&L debacle 
in some key aspects. The capitalist government will step in to 
bail out the companies that robbed the pension funds. But 
according to the latest projections, the cost of such a bailout 
could be much higher than the $130 billion spent on the S&L 
bailout.

In the face of such a disaster, how can merely switching 
capitalist political parties fix the basic problem? In fact, the 
only strategies offered so far will make things even worse for 
workers and retirees. Democratic Rep. J.J. Pickle, head of a 
Congressional committee overseeing the PBGC, told the New York 
Times he plans to introduce legislation to prevent certain 
companies from raising employee benefits.

Even if President-elect Bill Clinton sincerely wanted to save 
workers' pensions, he can't. He'll be administering a system 
designed to exploit workers. It will take a socialist system 
built on workers' rights to guarantee secure retirement years for
all workers.

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if
source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org; "workers"
on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)
 

 NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
 Modem: 718-448-2358  *  Internet: nytransfer@igc.apc.org

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