Pensions are a material basis for the big chunk of working class leisure time, won and fulfilled through progress in lifespan.
Pension funds take a role in U.S. politics Partisan overtones evident after vote December 6, 2004 BY JIM WASSERMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- On issues from global warming to corporate reform, public pension funds controlled by union officials and Democrats in states carried by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry increasingly see themselves as counterweights to Republican control of the nation's political agenda. As President George W. Bush plans a second term, multibillion-dollar investment funds -- especially in so-called blue states such as California, New York, Connecticut and Illinois -- have already forged alternate agendas on clean energy, the environment, executive pay, even gay marriage rights that can run counter to red state values. They also view themselves as an increasingly important check on corporate power under a Republican-dominated government that typically promotes fewer regulations on business and financial markets. Their muscle comes in the billions of dollars invested in corporate America. "We've had no choice but to step up," said California's Democratic state Treasurer Phil Angelides, a director of the nation's largest and third-largest pension funds with combined values of nearly $300 billion. "This administration has turned its back on ordinary investors, or on issues of substantial concern to our economy." While the primary mission of enormous Democrat-controlled pension funds such as California's $177-billion Public Employees Retirement System, also known as CalPERS, and New York State's $118-billion Common Retirement Fund is to produce income for their millions of public-sector retirees, how they do it often has fierce partisan overtones. Unlike major institutional investors, such as private pension funds and insurance companies, public pension funds led by union officials and activist treasurers and comptrollers often aggressively rattle U.S. corporate cages. Fund leaders say it's about the bottom line. "We do not want to see a sudden devaluation in those stocks," said California Controller Steve Westly, a former executive of the online auction house eBay, who's pushing automakers in which CalPERS has invested $836 million to embrace cleaner-burning cars.
