Once Upon a Time There Were Pensions

Not for everyone true, but many jobs provided them. Now employers structure work to avoid providing any benefits, let alone provide pensions (think independent contractors and capping paid hours just below those needed to qualify as a full time worker). Meanwhile bankruptcy courts keep erasing prior negotiated pension contracts with the simple stroke of a pen.

Without Unions and the seniority rights protection that unions once had the power to insist on, Corporations trim costs today by axing their older higher paid workers. Senior layoffs are the new worker loyalty rewards, replacing yesterday's gold watches. As the age for qualifying for Social Security is creeping upward, the age for involuntary "retirement" drops lower. And while higher paid workers are getting pink slips, good paying jobs are shipped overseas, replaced by lower pay service sector jobs here if they are replaced at all.

Yes some of us were fortunate of foresightful enough to set aside some money in I.R.A.'s and the like, but who can afford to sit on those if you are unemployed at 57 and only Duncan Donuts wants You? Real worker wages are dropping in this country. Efforts at frugality may help to stretch a dollar but for millions of Americans it is getting near impossible to meaningfully save up for retirement. Our home equity values have fallen, the value of our currency has fallen, and inflationary pressures are building.

All of these trends are clearly established and it isn't hard to see where they are leading us. The religious right professes their faith in the Bible, so they all are well acquainted with this verse:

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least among you, you did not do for me."
-Matthew 25:41-45

There is not one person in Congress who will claim that we do not live in a wealthy nation. There is not one person in Congress who will claim that people get old because they are lazy. Taking $5,000 from a rich man will never threaten his life. Taking $50 from a poor man in a time of urgent need can do exactly that.

We are constantly defining ourselves as a nation. How will we define ourselves this week?

When those pensions were paid for by the employees

And there are a number of jobs where the employees still put money into it, but cannot collect

One might call this robbery, but since it's the big guys doing the stealing, it's all OK. Nothing to see here.

Fuck you America

stuff we've been paying for all our lives.

Again, we, the Dems, should be making that distinction loud and clear.

and when you follow the context the Republicans place that term in they just fall short of equating that with welfare fraud by cadillac driving G.A. mothers in some stereotypical ghetto. The subliminal message becomes "who do the think they are to feel entitled to my money?"

Unions fought for them. People demanded them. Workers watched over them carefully and stayed vigilant against people trying to raid them.

Take it easy, but take it!

There were those who believed we could count on Democrats to watch over us, at least on bedrock basics, if we got them into office.

I accept fair sactidices in a time of economic belt tightening, if they aren't literally life threatening sacrifices being called on for only some. Tell me I will have to wait longer for a passport renewal. Tell me the season at National Parks will average two weeks shorter. Tell me the federal fee for airport uss must be raised, or that most government brochures will now only be printed in black and white. OR TELL ME WE CAN NO LONGER AFFORD TO BE FIGHTING IN THREE WARS.

I can accept fair sacrifices, but not don't tell me that taking money from our elders who must struggle to live with some dignity in necessary to balence out the sacrifice of restoring the top tier tax bracket, that is already legally scheduled to expire, to what it was during the last general period of American prosperity.

Just kidding.

into a private savings fund...

i.e. value added on top of the current system.

Contracts with people--aka "pensions" don't count.

Contracts with corporations (super-people)--those count.

Which is why our ability to seek bankruptcy protection has been stripped away by bits and chunks, while theirs are intact.

:shrug:

IMO, there must be more organizing in this country.

Not many jobs started as "good" jobs. Linemen work,for example, once paid pennnies. After alot of suucess with organizing unions, the industry began to provide some of the best paying jobs in the country.

The jobs that are still in this country, need to be organized. The American worker has no choice but to repeat history, and turn crappy the current jobs into some of the best paying jobs in the world. As history has taught us, this can only be done through organized labor.

Card Check "YES"!

or at the very least they wildly expanded it from what it was and would otherwise have been.

We may be getting to see soon what type of Middle Class survives without Unions active promoting the average persons economic interests.