Angelides on Arnold's pension plan


In the LA Times today, Phil makes the darn good argument that weakening pensions hurts ordinary investors in the long run by preventing large pension funds from fighting corporate abuses and crony capitalism.

He says :

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says getting rid of public pension plans for California's state and local government workers is about helping to balance the budget. Peel back the budget wrapping on his plan, though, and you will find the governor's real agenda: the California prong of a national attack on the pension funds that have stood up for corporate reform and the interests of ordinary families and investors hurt by the recent wave of corporate scandal.

This, by the way, is a corollary of an argument that has been made about those flavors of Social Security "reform" that involve a large stock ownership component. The syllogism is straightforward: If individuals' retirement security is dependent on stock prices, then average Americans don't have an incentive to support pro-labor, pro-environment policies on the part of corporations -- because the stock market tends to punish companies that spend their hard-earned profits on measures that benefit labor and the environment.

Large public pension funds have been able to take the enlightened long view, using their size to cajole and even bully large companies into line. This has been especially important in recent years, as the thin veneer of decency and honesty over corporate culture has eroded to the point that we can see just exactly how hard the Enrons and Worldcoms of the world were trying to screw us.

If we destroy public pensions, we destroy one of the major bulwarks against corporate culture run amok. (I don't foam at the mouth so I'm having a little moment of disbelief that I just wrote that sentence.)

But this is a classic left-vs-right issue: Pensions are complicated and unsexy and therefore subject to spin, and the Republicans have an easier story to tell. Kudos to Phil for going on the offensive early. Now let's see whether he can get his message across.

Posted: Mon - February 7, 2005 at 12:33 PM   | Category:     |   |   | |


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