Last Wednesday in Pittsburg, Democratic presidential nominee and vice president Kamala Harris outlined her economic plan, a series of proposals that she dubbed the “opportunity economy.” The plan includes a strategy to “invest in emerging technologies and modernize traditional industries.” It aims to expand clean energy and technology manufacturing and innovation all the while supporting workers, unions, and the communities where these plants are located.
The proposed plan aims to do this almost exclusively with tax credits. But tax credits alone will not redirect flows of investment at the scale imagined by the plan’s authors, let alone the requirements of the United States. The problem today is not simply that capitalists underinvest in the areas needed to secure a decent future. It is also that ordinary working people themselves are sitting on tremendous pools of capital over which they have no actual control.
September 2024 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. Better known as ERISA, Gerald Ford’s administration passed the legislation to make retirement more secure for American workers. Yet, the long-run result of this law has been to divert workers’ capital away from the things that they themselves so desperately need and depend on.
Pension funds collect money from employees, employers, and sometimes governments. Trustees and asset managers then invest that money to grow it for the employees when they retire. In the United States, public pension funds, including those sponsored by state and local governments, have approximately $5 trillion in assets under management. Private pension funds, including traditional defined benefit plans and 401(k)s, have closer to $12 trillion. Worker’s capital is colossal.
But today, those funds are invested in ways that hurt the workers and communities they are intended to protect.
Pension funds invest billions in real estate funds run by firms…
La suite est à lire sur: jacobin.com
Auteur: Michael A. McCarthy
