2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow Pensions Violate Free Speech (makes a damn good point!)
(when your own money can be used against your best interests, there's something really, really wrong! But then, we already knew that! - gd)
A CENTRAL principle of American political life is that everyone gets to choose which candidates to support. The idea that the government could force us to support those we oppose is anathema. But this unacceptable state of affairs is one of the unintended consequences of the Supreme Courts decision in the 2010 Citizens United case.
Thats because the vast majority of people who work in the public sector state, local and federal employees are required to make contributions to a pension plan. Nearly all states make participation in a pension plan mandatory and a condition of employment for public employees. To get and keep your job with the government, you have to give some of your paycheck to the pension plan.
Public pensions, moreover, are so-called defined benefit plans, which means that employees dont have a say in how their mandatory contributions are invested. The employees cannot request, for example, that their money be used only to buy government bonds or that it be invested only in certain mutual funds or only in select corporations.
Instead, the employees money is invested according to whatever decisions the pension plans trustee makes. And, not surprisingly, pension plans invest heavily in corporate securities: in 2008, public pensions held about $1.15 trillion in corporate stock.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/13/opinion/under-citizens-united-public-employees-are-compelled-to-pay-for-corporate-political-speech.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120713
dkf
(37,305 posts)You have been so bamboozled.
groovedaddy
(6,229 posts)ME options of where to invest the funds in the plan. I can direct the money away institutions that are using proceeds for political positions that I don't support. This piece is essentially saying that public employees don't have that option. Why shouldn't they have it?
Brewinblue
(392 posts)WTF?
A pension plan does not prevent ANYONE from saying whatever they like, the trustee, however, is legally bound by his/her fiduciary duty to make investments that in his professional opinion are solely in the best interests of the plan participants.
The biggest problem facing future retirees today is not a lack of choice in pension investment direction, it is the abandonment of pensions by employers and their substitution by 401(k) plans that shift all risk to the employees -- pension risk is entirely that of the employer.
Employees are almost never qualified to actually make prudent investment decisions while trying to maximize investment gains. The vast majority of 401(k) participants habitually chase returns, buying high and selling low. I speak from experience having been a retirement plan attorney for 20 years.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)What Citizens United failed to account for, however, is that a significant portion of the money that corporations are spending on politics is financed by equity capital provided by public pension funds capital contributions that the government requires public employees to finance with their paychecks.
This consequence of Citizens United is perverse: requiring public employees to finance corporate electoral spending amounts to compelled political speech and association, something the First Amendment flatly forbids.
groovedaddy
(6,229 posts)pension funds are being used to political speech that they may not support?
i.e., If I don't like the Koch bros. political activities I can choose to buy other products to keep my money from going to them, right? As the article stated, public employees, in the these defined pension plans, don't have the right to direct their funds to ,say, government bonds, where it won't be used for political speech. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Brewinblue
(392 posts)So let's just close those and put 100% of the burden on the employees.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
groovedaddy
(6,229 posts)able to direct where their pension funds go WITHIN the plan?
Brewinblue
(392 posts)So Republicans have every right to stop paying taxes to the extent any of it goes toward social programs?
Grow up, a democratic republic does not mean everyone has a say in everything.