There is an ideological drum beat underway that, to me, mirrors the relentless mantra we have endured about so-called “free trade” for the past three decades. This one goes like this: pensions are a thing of the past, and certainly no one should expect to get a real pension anymore–“real” being, in my humble opinion, a defined-benefit pension.
In the same way that we have been told that the global economy has arrived and so, good folks, everyone has to embrace so-called “free trade” and get with the program, there is a persistent hum that companies are no longer capable of providing pensions for its workers, and certainly don’t have any moral obligation to do so.
Into this noise wades Roger Lowenstein in today’s Sunday New York Times Magazine with a piece headlined, “We Regret To Inform You That You No Longer Have A Pension.” (registration required) There are two themes to this piece. The first I have no particular quibble with: the factual recounting of the looming financial crisis facing private and public pensions (which I’ve talked about here many times, as well as over at TomPaine.com).
The second theme is what isn’t said: that the coming collapse of the private pension system has as a root cause the abdication of the corporate sector from any responsibility to people who toil for their companies. Lowenstein sets this up by painting the picture of the more “mobile” worker–a worker who does not stay at one company for an entire lifetime–as an inevitable economic developmental.
In fact, the more “mobile” worker is an integral part of the stripping away of job security, which is not an economic fact, like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, but a consequence of the rules that have been set up. And our economy is now run on a set of rules that puts less and less responsibility on companies for the welfare of workers and more of the onus on workers–whether we’re talking about pensions or health care. Ummmm…and there is very little focus in the piece on the vast riches being pulled down by executives, which come at the expense of part of the ability to fund rank-and-file workers’ pensions.
I’d also point out that Lowenstein makes no reference to the crisis in health care. The huge liabilities faced by companies because of our idiotic health care system adds significant financial pressures that cascades over to the willingness to fund pensions. It’s not a one-to-one equation but an important factor.
