Let's Break A Deal

I was in McDonald's this morning. My Ipod needed a charge, so I left it at home so I brought the issue of Time that I am currently reading, the October 31 issue with the cover story "The Great Retirement Ripoff" which really brings home what is wrong with American society today - the destruction of the American Dream and the climate of corruption and the wholesale selling out of the middle class by the 'For Sale To The Highest Corporate Bidder Congress'.

McDonalds is a senior hangout of sorts and since I didn't have my headphones on, I could hear the conversations of the rather large gathering. They were talking about their finances, medical care and how they were going to make ends meet. These days, the concept of the 'Golden Years' is a concept for only the well-to-do while increasingly it is a source of fear for the majority of us.

The article starts out talking about 'The Broken Promise' made by corporations to their workers: You toil for years, be loyal t your companies and we will take care of you in your retirement years. This was the second leg of the American Dream, the first being homeownership. It talks about how Joy Whitehorse, 69, a retiree now living in Utah lost $1200 in monthly income because her husband's former company reneged on their promise to take care of him in his retirement, (he is now deceased). He worked for a trucking company and in an effort to remain 'competitive' during the de-regulation days of the 90's, the company began cutting back on pensions. Joy, who has cancer, now collects bottles to make ends meet. She has all the paperwork 'guaranteeing' her a fixed income of $942, but if you are a coporation in America, you do not have to honor tour contractual agreements like individuals are reguired to.

She collected checks until her check bounced as a corporate raider drove the company into bankrupcy by ripping of the company's pension plan. Congress has made it easy for company's to renege on their obligations to their workers by simply decalring bankruptcy. Declare bankruptcy, erase debt and obligations. Simple. And while Congress has made it MORE DIFFICULT for you to file bankruptcy (vetoed twice by Clinton) it also made it impossible for workers to sue theor former employers to honor their committments.

All this is happening while the most notorious of corporate corruption cases, the trial of Ken Lay, the former GOP chief fundraiser, secret energy cabal member of Dick Cheney and Bush pal, begins in Houston. In that case, one employee of ENRON saw his portfolio drop from $1.3M to a paltry $3500. And remember, the emplyees were NOT ALLOWED to dump their stock.

The article goes on to say that 'Corporate promises are often not worth the paper they are printed on." That could sum it all up and I could call it quits here, but I won't. It says further - "It's the euivalent of your bank telling you that it needs the money you put into your savings account more than you do - and keeping it. The result: A wholesale downsizing of the American Dream."

Congressional decisions - many of them favoring corporate donors, lobbyists and the corporate friendly bankruptcy lawyers will force millions of elderly and currently working Americans into abject poverty. And none of it would be possible without the collusion of the people you vote for to represent YOU and YOUR interests. They wrote the rules allowing corporations to underfund pensions, made it easy for corporations to file bankrupcty and break any legal deal they may have had with their once loyal employees and of course, they made it easier for companies to use contract workers first, then outsize your job to workers who make $100 a month, but where homes do not cost $1M. And how are you supposed to fund your retirement without ann income? And Congress has steadfastled refused to reform the health care system - the single most costly aspect of workers and senior standard of living. Health care costs as well as housing keep going up exponentially, which wages in America have been spiralling downward since the 1970s.

In February, 2004, Bush's Secretary of the Treasury John Snow claimed "I think we need to be concerned about pensions and the security they have in their pensions." He wants us to save and become part of Bush's 'Ownership Society'.

That would be easy if we had a pension like Snow's. He was employed at CSX for 26 years but his lump sum payment of $33.2M is based on 44 years of service when in fact, he only worked there 26. The 18 years of 'unearned' time is yet another gift given to America's richest. Imagine what s social and fiscal conservative Republican would say, if a low income welfare recipient were to get benefits for 18 'extra' years of 'unearned' time. Laws would be quickly passed, maybe a constitutional amendment of two to put an end to 'welfare queens'.

In fact, most of Bush's economic policy to date has been giving freebies to millionaires via tax cuts on 'unearned' income, while the IRS cracks down harder on YOUR earned income.

During the 1990s, employees, such as the ones at Polaroid, were asked to bail out their companies in the form of Employee Assisted buyouts (ESOPS). After taking pay cuts and other benefit cuts for years, one of the 'employee owners' got a check for (drumroll) for $47 when she turned 60. So much for being a team player. Each employee got stock worth .09 while the execs got stocks valued at over $12 a share.

It was on the news today that Americans last year spent not just everything they've earned but went into debt last year at levels not seen since 1932 and 1933 the opening years of the Great Depression.

So what is the GOP's answer to your retirement. Work till you die, just like it was 100 years ago. They keep pushing IRAs and 401Ks, which was a Reagan/Bush Sr. 1980s vehicle for execs to shelter more of their income from the tax man. But in order to take care of the future, you must have a job TODAY. Today, Kraft announced the layoff of 8000 workers. That'll help fund the CEOs Golden Parachute.

So tonight, when you watch Shrub's State of the Union with the now confirmed Supreme Court Justice Sam Alito (you have no inherent right to anything, including a job, privacy, health care) in tow, I want you to take a shot of really strong liquor whenever he says 'the economy is strong'. By the way, Greenspan's last stand is to raise the prime rate just oen more time to slow down the economy.

All incumbents OUT in 2006. Including the Dems who can't come up with a decent counter argument to the 'you're on your own and its all your own fault' philosophy of the GOP. Remember, its YOUR fault you didn't make yourself valuable enough to your employer, and its YOUR fault you didn't save enough and its YOUR fault, you got paid too much which drove the company to bankruptcy.

Shame on us.