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Hightower Lowdown
"The opposite of courage is not cowardice, it's conformity." -- Jim Hightower
January's Lowdown
Yes we can manage this country without the corporate priesthood--the cooperative movement shows us how
We're being told by today's High Priests of Conventional Wisdom that everyone and everything in our economic cosmos necessarily revolves around one dazzling star: the corporation. This heavenly institution, the HPCW explain, has such financial and political mass that it is the optimal force for organizing and directing our society's economic affairs, including the terms of employment and production.
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In This Issue
Playing state against state, city against city
The great corporate jobs-for-subsidies con-job
Also in this issue:
- Free-enterprise socialism
- The wrath of leviticus
- Bush's evangelical suprise
- Chevy's revolting revolution
- United stiffs retirees and tapayers
- Hold the mail
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United stiffs retirees and tapayers
Only a few weeks ago, George W and Congress teamed up with big banking lobbyists to slam hard-hit working folks by shutting off their access to bankruptcy protection. "Take personal responsibility," scolded politicians of both parties. "You made the debt, you have to pay it, even if it drives your family into the poor house," they piously admonished.
So where is the moral piety of these politicos now that United Airlines has simply walked away from its financial responsibility for the retirement of tens of thousands of its employees? Retirement benefits are not a "gift" to employees, but a part of their agreed-to compensation.
Nonetheless, United's top honchos wail that if they honor this debt, the airline and its workers will all be in the poorhouse. United has taken advantage of our nation's bankruptcy laws to terminate its retirement plans, creating the largest pension default in U.S. history.
Not only has the corporation stiffed its workers, many of whom will now see drastic cuts in their retirement income, but it has also dumped $3.2 billion of its pension obligations onto the federal agency that guarantees pensions.Yes, this means that we taxpayers have to pick up United's load. One pension not in danger is the fat one going to United?s CEO.