The very rich oligarchies buy countries, states and local governments and then pass their anti-tax policies, which over time leaves the government with not enough tax revenue to pay bills or maintain infrastructure and they then often opt for pension holidays to make ends meet, skipping payments to the pension funds.
Over time this has created large unfunded pension liabilities in effected countries, like Greece and cities like Detroit, and maybe Chicago is next to borrow money from pensioners to make up for revenue shortfalls after giving corporations and the wealthy tax breaks.
Now austerity hawks are using these unfunded liabilities to argue slashing pensions even though it was their own anti-tax policies that caused the problem. While it is sound public policy to use debt to fund long-term capital projects, it is deeply problematic when governments are forced to borrow money to deal with revenue shortfalls. It is even more problematic when they are doing so as a result of a concerted effort to suppress taxes.
New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie attacked his state’s pension and retirement system to the tune of $170 billion. This deficit occurred in two ways, the state slashed its contributions to pension funds and his cronies engaged in double dipping, gorging themselves at the public trough by “retiring” from one public job to take another while collecting retirement from the first and a salary from the second.
When cities and counties borrow money, they borrow from the banks and the very rich, who then get richer off the backs of the wage slaves who would pay taxes if they could earn a living wage, such as $15 to $18 an hour.
Austerity is a lack of revenue caused by the refusal of Wall Street, big corporations and millionaires to pay their fair share in taxes. The proletarians need to elect people to pass a millionaires’ tax and a financial transaction tax, close corporate tax loopholes and end subsidies for profitable corporations. We must elect people who will stand with the 99 percent, and here in the U.S. consider senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Unions’ long game is to get all union contracts to expire on the same day nationwide. The United Auto Workers combines contracts ends on April 28, 2028. This could then result in a mass national strike starting on May Day beeginning that year. This could then put enormous pressure on employers, but also on lawmakers. It’s the muscle and sweat of the workers that keeps this country great, not the individual company or corporations. This May Day strike would be the time to change the workers’ world for the better by negotiating for a 32-hour week with the same pay, and the U.S. adopts a healthcare for all with no out of pocket costs. This would also help the employers as they would no longer have to provide healthcare. By striking, the UAW won same pay for new workers, all UAW contracts will end on the same date, a 25-percent pay increase, a cost of living adjustments, a guaranteed right to strike over potential plant closures, and also the right to vote to unionize through the card che
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