With our inequality coming close to that of Jamaica and Argentina, as Obama pointed out in his Dec. 4 speech on inequality and social mobility, we can no longer ignore the danger it poses to our democracy and living standards.
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Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters based in Washington, said, "Going forward, this is as much about politics and the priorities of public officials as it is about bankruptcy and the court."
Schaitberger said that elected officials in the United States are expected to continue to "push for austerity no matter the cost to the lives of workers and public safety."
The crisis in funding for pensions, both private and public, is a manufactured one. It's rooted in the Enron-style accounting and "something-for-nothing" financial engineering that set off the 2008 financial meltdown. Now that state and local governments are swimming in red ink because of tax cuts and the Wall Street meltdown, unions are caught flat-footed. Their erstwhile allies, after testing today's political winds, now line up to ax their pay and pensions.
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Continuing to attack pensions and thereby promoting these vastly inadequate personal accounts speeds the U.S. toward a generation of elders living in dire poverty.
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