[Craic] The Unseen Revolution – How Pension Fund Socialism Came to America

[Arthur Blomme]

Hi David

I heard that some pension funds are in jeopardy because they have been 
loaded with fracking stock that is now worthless.

Art

On 5/10/20 5:39 p.m., David Walsh wrote:
>
> CRAIC friends – I came across this article by Peter Drucker in my 
> files yesterday, and thought it would be of interest.
>
> Peter Drucker was a leading management thinker and consultant. He 
> wrote 39 Books
>
> The predictions he made 44 years ago should give us pause about how 
> and where change will come from. See attachment for further details.
>
> This book is still selling for $95 on Amazon. Below are some quotes.
>
> *How Pension Fund Socialism Came to America -- The Unseen Revolution - 
> - The Revolution No One Noticed* – *1976 *
>
> https://www.amazon.ca/Unseen-Revolution-Pension-Socialism-America/dp/1483207625
>
> **
>
> *Page 1 to 3*
>
> If ‘socialism’ is defined as ownership of the means of production by 
> the workers, then the United States is the first truly ‘Socialist’ 
> country. Through their pension funds the workers of America own more 
> than one-third of the equity capital of American business. Within 
> another ten years they will increase their holdings to own at least 
> 50% if not 60% of the equity capital plus a major portion – perhaps 
> 40% of the debt capital (bonds, debentures, and notes) of the American 
> economy. Inflation can only speed up this process.
>
>
> Even more important, the largest employee pension funds, those of the 
> 1,000-1,300 biggest companies plus the 35 industry-wide funds (those 
> of the college teachers and the teamsters for instance) already own 
> control of practically every single on of the 1,000 largest industrial 
> corporations in America.
>
>
> Only in the United Sates do the employees both own and get the 
> profits, in the form of pension, as part of wage income. Only in the 
> Untied States are the employees through their pension funds also 
> becoming the legal owners the suppliers of capital, and the 
> controlling force of the capital market. In other words, without 
> consciously trying, the Untied States has ‘socialized’ the economy but 
> not ‘nationalized’ it. America still sees herself and is seen 
> elsewhere, as ‘capitalist’, but if terms like ‘socialism’ or 
> ‘capitalism’ have any meaning at all, then the American system has 
> actually become the ‘decentralized market socialism’ which all the 
> Marxist church fathers, saints and apostles before Lenin had been 
> preaching and promising. The problem is that this will lead to 
> low-wage earners and people on social security becoming conscious of a 
> gross inequality of income distribution in old age in America. This is 
> one problem the so-called negative income tax could assuage at a 
> manageable cost.
>
> In 2000 Drucker wrote: “*Top management is powerful but failing” - *As 
> the corporation moves towards a confederation or a syndicate, it will 
> increasingly need a top management that is separate, powerful and 
> accountable. Corporations will have to pay attention,” Drucker argued, 
> “to both to their short-term business results and to their long-term 
> performance…”
>
> A reviewer of his books wrote: “Drucker’s hope was that the pension 
> funds and mutual funds would lead the way. “By 2000, pension funds and 
> mutual funds had come to own the majority of the share capital of 
> America's large companies. This has given shareholders the power to 
> demand short-term rewards. But the need for a secure retirement income 
> will increasingly focus people's minds on the future value of the 
> investment.”
>
> David
>
> David Walsh
>
> Cell - 416-361-1341
> david at dwalsh.ca <mailto:david at dwalsh.ca>
>
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