Alberta's Pension Plan and the Right to Security in Retirement
Ruling Elite's Denial of Social Responsibility
Pensions for
seniors upon retiring from work or for reasons of
incapacity are important features of the arrangement between the
working class and those who own and control the socialized
economy.
Pensions for all at Canadian standards of living are both
necessary and
possible within the
arrangement with those who buy their capacity to work. Pensions
for all
at modern Canadian standards are possible because of the
enormous
productive capacity of the working class within the current
socialized
economy. The working class recognizes this right and through
class
struggle obligates those
who have seized control of the socialized economy to organize a
means
of living in retirement for all at the highest level the
productive
forces have achieved.
The ruling elite contend that maintenance after the working life is over is individual and not collective in nature. This means that individual workers must save for retirement while working even though they have no say or control over the direction of the socialized economy and the security of their employment, current wages and pension funds. The denial of the collective nature of the modern economy obscures the reality that in retirement workers are no longer producing and must rely on the productive capacity of the active working class for their needs and maintenance. The reality is that the coming generations of workers produce more than enough to maintain those from their collective who are already retired or unable to work for whatever reason. The ruling elite interfere with this arrangement by expropriating much of the new value workers produce to satisfy their aim for ever increasing private profit.
Fraud of Imperialist Pension Schemes
A serious concern of the working class across the country is that ruling elites have turned saving for retirement into fraudulent pay-the-rich schemes. Individual and collective pension funds have been concocted that have become a source of social value for the rich to use to expand their ownership and control of the economy. The imperialist pension funds tax the working class with payments from the individual wages workers receive from selling their capacity to work.
Imperialist pension plans such as Registered Retirement Savings Plans in Canada and 401(k)s in the U.S., and collective company and government pension funds steal the individual wages of workers to pay for what should belong to them by right as a retirement social program underwritten by the productive capacity of the socialized economy and the enormous amount workers produce in the present. The theft of workers' individual wages to fashion pension funds has resulted in the creation of some of the largest sources of social value in the world. The rich use these funds to increase their power and monopoly control of the economy and divide and block the working class from bringing the private relations of production into conformity with the socialized economic base.
The Bank of Canada writes, "The pension fund sector holds about 15 per cent of the total assets of the Canadian financial system, or $1.5 trillion. About two-thirds of pension assets are managed by the eight largest public pension funds in Canada (the Big Eight): the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI), the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSPIB), the Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo), OMERS (Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System) and the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP). With net investment assets ranging from $64 billion to $265 billion, the Big Eight are among the world's largest pension funds. All eight were included in a list of the 100 largest pension funds, with three of them ranked among the 20 largest. The Big Eight manage the funds of various defined benefit pension plans: the Canada Pension Plan, the Régime des rentes du Québec, and the plans of public sector employees of the federal and four provincial governments."
Taxing
workers to save for retirement allows those in ownership and
control to
deny their social responsibility towards the retirement of
workers
making it a responsibility of the working class, which in
reality has
no say or control over the economy. The ruling elite use those
taxed
funds for
their narrow private interests and even divide the working class
against itself according to the level of security the particular
pension funds may or may not deliver in retirement. In this way
the
ruling elite evade their social responsibility to create an
effective
mechanism through the state to
collect funds in the present from the socialized economy to
provide a
Canadian standard of living for all in retirement without
exception and
divert the working class from the necessity for social
revolution.
The working class reproduces itself through its socialized work. The social reproduced-value that the working class produces within the economy is more than enough to meet all the individual and social needs of the people such as education, health care and housing for all and retirement at standards the working class determines including for those who have become ill or injured or for whatever reason have not fared well at work.
New value when collected and distributed in a socially responsible manner increases the amount of disposable-time for all and the possibilities to raise the living standards of all humanity at home and abroad to acceptable levels and eliminate crises in the economy. Such a transformation enhances society generally and is a crucial advance in creating the objective conditions to humanize the social and natural environment, bring the relations of production more firmly into conformity with the socialized economic base and to harmonize the relations of individuals with each other and with their collectives and the general interests of society.
This article was published in
Volume 53
Number 12 - December 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/M530122.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca