The crises are piling up fast and furiously. Billionaires are running the country, upending the rule of law, supplying armaments for wars abroad and robots to replace us in our jobs, all while marching our economy to the brink of disaster. Closer to home, corporate power and tax-averse billionaires stand in the way of struggles to secure health care, housing, and life’s basic necessities. They’re deeply entangled in all of Donald Trump’s outrages.
There are plenty of signs that this is not sitting well with everyday people. Last month, New York City voters chose a democratic socialist, Zohran Mamdani, to stand as Democratic nominee in November’s mayoral election. Shortly before that, we saw record-breaking mass demonstrations opposing Trump’s authoritarianism in all fifty states. But aside from waiting for the next election and registering discontent in the streets, how can this energy be channeled to change our bleak trajectory?
A critical first step is recognizing the extent to which corporate America, especially the tech industry, is enabling Trump. If that connection can be made, an under-the-radar opportunity emerges that can push back on this ruthless tide: shifting how public funds are invested.
On the surface, redirecting public funds may hardly seem like a headline-grabbing path forward. But when we consider that retirement systems and municipal treasuries hold billions of dollars of investments in companies like Tesla and nations like Israel, that lever starts to look pretty powerful. We could pry billions of dollars of public money out of such wildly risky investments — for the future of our cities, states, and country.
“Billions” is no exaggeration. As of April, the retirement systems for California public workers and teachers alone (CalPERS and CalSTERS, respectively) own more than nine million shares of Tesla stock. That means that the pension portfolios of more than three million California
Auteur: Saqib Bhatti
