MIM Notes 189 July 1 1999

SWITZERLAND BOURGEOISIFIES THROUGH PENSIONS

The Financial Times reported extensively on pension-holding in the 
imperialist countries on May 21. Changes in tax laws and political 
attitudes toward social security and welfare programs of the 
governments have led to making the assets of the labor aristocracy 
more explicit. In Switzerland, a law in place since 1987 requiring 
private pensions has already resulted in an average pension fund 
of over $40,000 for every man, womyn and child. When one considers 
that only a portion of the population is retired at any time, that 
figure is all the more astonishing.

The Netherlands averages over $35,000 in such pension assets per 
persyn; Denmark over $31,000 and Sweden over $25,000. Italy and 
France have relatively paltry pension averages at just over $4,000 
and $1,000 respectively, but it is precisely those governments 
that have very strong government welfare systems. In both 
Switzerland and France there is a labor aristocracy. In one place 
the wealth of the "worker" is directly through his or her alliance 
with the imperialist state. In Switzerland, the power of the 
ordinary "worker" or labor aristocracy is expressed more and more 
in private assets. Overall the countries are very similar just 
with slightly different political systems.

The conversion of the privileges of the labor aristocracy into 
private pensions proves what MIM has been saying about this class 
all along. Befuddled pseudo-Marxists are unable to observe the 
appropriation of labor unless it takes the form of private assets. 
Now it is doing so and disproving their theories about the 
imperialist class structure daily.

World-wide pension assets totaled $11 trillion in 1998. In the 
United $tates, tax-exempt institutions that are mostly pensions 
are worth $6 trillion. In no way can such sums be regarded as 
inconsequential even in outright private ownership terms. They are 
an expression of the appropriation of labor by oppressor nation 
"workers" that makes them conservative.

Note: Financial Times pullout section, "Pension Fund Investment: 
Annual Review," 21 May 1999.