Is Capitalism No Longer Working for Working People? ( Delta )
Imagine the luxury of running a business and knowing that no matter how poorly you operate it, you will always be in business because, at any time, you can declare that you're just not going to pay your obligations to past or present employees and creditors. Imagine the comfort of knowing that your government will keep you employed if you're an incompetent executive who can't generate a profit.
Now imagine being an employee and knowing that no matter what financial promises your employer makes, in exchange for a lifetime of work, and in writing, those promises mean nothing. Imagine your retirement years, when you can no longer earn an income and have planned your survival based on your employer's pension promise that never comes through or is rescinded. Imagine your employer, unable to do a good enough job to sustain your company's health, riding off into the sunset with your money in the side bags leaving you in the dust—a ward of the government.
Wait, we don't have to imagine these things at all…it's the American way! What do they call it in societies where there's a wealthy class protected by government and everyone else becomes a ward of the state? Capitalism? I think not. Step by step, it seems that we're moving in that direction. Those who work at jobs to earn a living are setting themselves up to become wards of the state. Today, it's pilots who worked for Delta whose only-partial-pensions will now be paid by the government through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC).
How much of this debt-dumping do we have to see before we declare that the system of employer-provided benefits does not work? Privatization of funding for essential services seems to serve only the investors—the government ends up paying anyway…but not the full amount due.
Now imagine being an employee and knowing that no matter what financial promises your employer makes, in exchange for a lifetime of work, and in writing, those promises mean nothing. Imagine your retirement years, when you can no longer earn an income and have planned your survival based on your employer's pension promise that never comes through or is rescinded. Imagine your employer, unable to do a good enough job to sustain your company's health, riding off into the sunset with your money in the side bags leaving you in the dust—a ward of the government.
Wait, we don't have to imagine these things at all…it's the American way! What do they call it in societies where there's a wealthy class protected by government and everyone else becomes a ward of the state? Capitalism? I think not. Step by step, it seems that we're moving in that direction. Those who work at jobs to earn a living are setting themselves up to become wards of the state. Today, it's pilots who worked for Delta whose only-partial-pensions will now be paid by the government through the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation (PBGC).
How much of this debt-dumping do we have to see before we declare that the system of employer-provided benefits does not work? Privatization of funding for essential services seems to serve only the investors—the government ends up paying anyway…but not the full amount due.
