I often enjoy the Daily Show for their dry humor on political subjects. On the other hand, when I see them covering a subject without cracking jokes, I know to take notice. This time the subject is how giant corporations steal from their employees’ pensions and health plan for executive compensation, and of course, Republicans stand in the way of protecting the workers.
I don’t think that this fact can be overemphasized as we have various corporate media and political pundits seek to minimize Occupy Wall Street: We are the richest nation in the world. There is a massive amount of wealth here, enough to keep each and every citizen living at a very comfortable level. The problem is that there is also a staggering income inequalityas well, more so than in some third world nations, like Trinidad and Tobago, Mozambique and Tunisia. Again, the richest nation in the world cannot serve its citizens as equitably as Mozambique. In a word: unacceptable.
One of the ways that Wall Street has caused this massive shift of wealth strictly to the top 1 percent is in the way corporations have decimated pension funds. Investigative journalist Ellen Schultz wrote the book Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit from the Nest Eggs of American Workers to illustrate how these corporations have pulled a reverse Robin Hood and robbed from the working poor to give yet even more to the rich. From the publisher’s description:
It’s no secret that hundreds of companies have been slashing pensions and health coverage earned by millions of retirees. Employers blame an aging workforce, stock market losses, and spiraling costs- what they call “a perfect storm” of external forces that has forced them to take drastic measures.
But this so-called retirement crisis is no accident. Ellen E. Schultz, award-winning investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, reveals how large companies and the retirement industry-benefits consultants, insurance companies, and banks-have all played a huge and hidden role in the death spiral of American pensions and benefits…
… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
Here’s the video:
There can be no doubt that Republicans and their corporate cronies have been waging class warfare against the poor and middle classes for years. They must be stopped at the polls.
10 Responses to “Republican Reverse Robin Hood”
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I’ve always said that the Republikins ALWAYS accuse others (Lefties and such) of doing EXACTLY what THEIR bad behavior is….in psychology it is called ‘PROJECTION’…they project their undesirable behaviors onto others so they don’t have to own it! There is NO BETTER EXAMPLE of projection than their new mantra of ‘wealth redistribution’. Banksters have been nickeling & diming the poor & middle class with credit card interest rates & banking fees for more than a few decades now! Not happy to make a mere 6-8% off us, now they have doubled that & wonder why we have quit cooperating. ALL banks would have to do to get this country CHARGING forward again is to lower the interest rates & FIX them so WE THE PEOPLE have the security of knowing what to expect….isn’t that EXACTLY the mantra THEY use about regulations???? BUT, they aren’t willing to offer the SAME to clients!
SCREW THEM…STOP CHARGING whenever possible!
Excellent observation Zada. Given my volunteer work, I am intimately familiar with projection, and you have this pegged.
Funny– They have got away with this for many many years– but now unable to keep their greed in check- It is all coming out into the open , and revolution is brewing –I recall my Grandmother saying ‘never trust banks or bankers’ ;; now since Grandma was born in 1870— this is not a new problem is it ? I think one of the factors has been our failure to learn from the past History— This has happened before hasn’t it ?
It was pretty recent that I was throwing away 4-5 offers for credit cards ,,Daily , I recognized that for the scam it was , and is— Free credit comes with a big price– How many have credit cards and how many maxed them out ? I guess I was fortunate to understand the best Credit is the Bohemian Plan ;; 100% down and nothing to pay .
I have credit cards- yes- and I have used them , yes—- in my life I have never maxed a credit card- or come close — in other words , I used them , they did not use me—
I think the blame can be shared– The Bankers took full advantage of us— but exposed themselves as the Greedy Bastards they were, and are . So blew the lid off- And we , as a people did not rebel the first time it became public–How many times have we sat back and thought –‘well that won’t happen to me’ ? – looking back and saying- “ohh my– should have taken a stand then “– won’t do much good– it is now— we must stand together and insist– “NO MORE”–
Zada’s thought of not using credit cards is a good one— at this time I have one—other cards are in a vault– ($30 per year) where to use them has to be planned and not impulsive— that works well to help us learn to control ourselves– we cannot have unlimited credit–that is a factor here — I think–
POWER TO THE PEOPLE !!!
I have only one credit card, and I do what banks hate. I pay it off in full every month, and if i can’t I don’t buy whatever would have prevented it.
I just went through a round of emails with my daughter-in-law in regard to banksters, credit cards, and underwater mortgages. Unfortunately, they didn’t ask mom before signing into HELO loans to do some upgrades. Now, they’re drowning. I wish I was rich so I could help them. By the way, my “deadbeat” son works 12-16 hours a day.
The whole situation is sad and sickening.
Marva, My sympathies to them. Many of the HELOC loans were also ninja loans.
Crap! I remember years ago when corporate bankruptcies were higher, hearing about employees all of sudden not only out of work and owed wages when their employer went bankrupt, but losing their pensions as well. Over the years I heard a lot of noise about underfunded pensions and companies having to bring the pensions up to snuff. I was much younger and not paying particular attention to that aspect. I was busy trying to convince my clients to invest what they could in an RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) so that they could take advantage of the tax benefits right away and have income benefits during retirement. I had understood that this under funding had be changed, but now I see it hasn’t. A bill to give certain protections to employees and pensioners should the company go into bankruptcy was defeated by the majority Conservative government of our own weazel, PM Stephen Harper. Here is a picture of one of our pension protests. Glad it wasn’t winter because Ottawa is damn cold!
From Squidoo.com — “Pension protection around the world takes a few specific forms. Countries such as the U.S., England, Germany, Japan, Scotland, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands have public pension benefit guarantee funds in place to protect pensioners in the event their former employers file for bankruptcy protection. In the U.S. pensions are guaranteed up to $56,000 per year, . . . ” Canada has no such protections. Arggghhhhhh!
True Lynn, but that’s for bankruptcy only. What we often have here are pensions that pay benefite to executives disproportionately with their contributions.
Another prime example of the 1% screwing the rest of us.
Always!