With the rhetoric of today's colleges and universities; with the rhetoric of even those who have billions, such a Buffett, Soros, Winfrey, & Gates (might as well be named as a feigned philanthropic billionaire's club); and with the persistent rhetoric of the Progressives, most of which are Liberal Democrats, telling the rest of us all that's wrong with Capitalism, on the basis of some fictional “public” or “social interest” or even “justice,” it is necessary to look at the principle, to look at Capitalism as the Political, Economic, and Social system of Freedom that it is.
You see, in a nutshell, without Capitalism you own nothing... Nothing! Understand that precious retirement and/or pension is included in this nothing. Our first look at the investments made by the unions who generally are managing, as institutional investors, stocks, bonds (and even Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich's original oil speculation) will be using just one union website that explains their stock holdings, CalPers, http://www.calpers.ca.gov/. Please note the $300 billionish in holdings of just this California State employees union, which, just a month ago was $290 billion, in 2007 dropped to a mere $170 billion. Again, this is just one public employees union's holdings for one State.
And for union Oil Speculation, to which many unions have been involved, I refer you to the statement of Michael W. Masters to the Senate in 2008, explaining:
“You have asked the question “Are Institutional Investors contributing to food and energy price inflation?” And my unequivocal answer is “YES.” In this testimony I will explain that Institutional Investors are one of, if not the primary, factors affecting commodities prices today. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute to price determination in the commodities markets; I am here to expose a fast-growing yet virtually unnoticed factor, and one that presents a problem that can be expediently corrected through legislative policy action.
“Commodities prices have increased more in the aggregate over the last five years than at any other time in U.S. history.[1] We have seen commodity price spikes occur in the past as a result of supply crises, such as during the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo. But today, unlike previous episodes, supply is ample: there are no lines at the gas pump and there is plenty of food on the shelves.
“If supply is adequate - as has been shown by others who have testified before this committee[2] - and prices are still rising, then demand must be increasing. But how do you explain a continuing increase in demand when commodity prices have doubled or tripled in the last 5 years?
“What we are experiencing is a demand shock coming from a new category of participant in the commodities futures markets: Institutional Investors. Specifically, these are Corporate and Government Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds, University Endowments and other Institutional Investors. Collectively, these investors now account on average for a larger share of outstanding commodities futures contracts than any other market participant.[3]” – Emphasis mine. Numbers are footnote references, see http://www.hsgac.senate.gov//imo/media/doc/052008Masters.pdf?attempt=2 to read these footnotes.
Understand, what I am sharing here is that “Corporate and Government Pension Funds, Sovereign Wealth Funds, University Endowments and other Institutional Investors” make such large scale investment in exploitation of Capitalism, even if it means their investment causes rapid increases in prices based on the speculation alone, which was a major contributing factor to the 2007 Recession.
So how does this relate to “Capitalism is caring?” As I said, “in exploitation of Capitalism,” which is to say, these pension funds and endowments, “Institutional Investors,” produce nothing, invent nothing. They are money pools for a group of union members, such as college professors or the 5 on the roadside (4 standing holding shovels) while the one guy is digging the hole for a “Your highway funds at work” road construction project, a money pool that is invested as indicated above by Mr. Masters. Amazing, isn't it, that the taxpayer-paid employee pension plan, while exploiting those who produce via the capital and commodities market, exploits those who do produce by the taxes on the citizenry, working at the local restaurant, retail store, big box store, etc., who have to pay more for gasoline or any other commodity, the silent tax of inflation by the tax-payer funded Union Pensions' Profits just makes my blood boil!
You could easily conclude the Unions and their pension fund management are no different than the hedge fund managers, the point of each the same: to always make a profit, their legal fiduciary obligation. It's a great cover isn't it? Unions paying people to chant in the streets for $10 and hour, then $15 per hour if the $10 is reached, knowing full well the dues money and percentage investment from those eventual union members will increase the total pension pool – The Institutional Investment money that was invested in oil speculation and drove the price up to $150 per barrel in 2007. And please recognize that when minimum wage goes up, the public employees now have grounds to demand States and National government give them a raise, or expedite some previously arranged wage increase, no matter if the State can afford it or not. Funny how they use the same hedge fund management approach to wages contract increases isn't it? Almost like they are running unions for a profit, meaning: running a non-profit as a profit enterprise (as Unions are required to be registered as exempt from taxation according to the IRS). Yes, there are no taxes whatsoever paid on these trillions in pension and retirement plans.
I heard a rare and endangered species cricket rub its legs... Oh wait that's the Progressives trying to say something... They are screaming, “Warren Buffett shouldn't pay less taxes than his Secretary!” So you say, yet, you have no trouble with a public sector union whose employees are paid by taxing citizens from being completely tax-exempt while holding 5 trillion dollars of stocks, bonds, and commodities speculation paper? Seems a complete and anti-Capitalist selective hypocrisy and persecution of the “wealthy” for you to arrive at no objection to a collective of elitists who make money as Trustees for public sector union pension plans while private individuals, who you argued in Hobby Lobby are the those real “persons,” and that the government is limited from taking private property from by the 5th Amendment, who you agree have innate 1st Amendment protections, aren't allowed to make the same risk and enjoy the same capital gains benefits as Union Institutional Investors? You'd actually deny a 1st time investor who is investing their post-tax income the right to make tax-free money by risk? I guess so, considering you want the dead to be taxed for leaving their hard-earned money to whoever they wish, even they can't be without government taking some portion... Apparently you've applied the abortion principle of no rights to the murdered fetus Individual to an Individual who leaves property to another when they die, perfect parallel, but surprised you'd make it so blatantly.
And what's so insane, so very insane oh Progressives, is that your Union Pension “investment banking” is entirely based on the success of Capitalism to afford its demise. That you know these businesses, by delivering their products or services, have met their entire requirement to show they care, know that in meeting the contractual obligation with a person who paid, be it to sell gasoline, movie tickets, an item from Amazon, or a gun show, etc., that the caring of the two parties is met upon delivery. Anything beyond that, anything else, is to propagandize and attack the company for sake of attacking Capitalism solely because it is the most moral system in the world. I can say that because we negotiate and exchange our property, our work and labor, which is the Individual determining their value and acting on it by their own standards. The morality of this system is only interrupted by Government which has proven to be the most corrupt and immoral institution on Earth. Government's abuse of its right of force (and when no such right exists just using force) be it by the tax code, or local governments via their enforcement of building and fire codes, or local taxes, such as the tax on “sales” of local retailers, is the only money taken out of the economy and used to pay public servants whose Union Institutional Investor does as Mr. Masters explained above.
So while you Progressives bring up your complaints about Capitalism and spout some “unfairness” talking points, know that you are only talking against Freedom and Individual Liberty, for the sake of the newly named corporate organizational structure: Unions, whose wealth, rivals, and in many cases exceed, the largest corporations and banks in the world, is destabilizing economies and without caring at all about the cost to the individuals in nation after nation, evidenced by you remembering what you were paying at the pump, when talk of $5 a gallon was being assumed “the new normal gas price?” Take a Progressive bow and thank your Institutional Investor Union Pensions for personally redistributing your wealth, since you're so “rich” and so “wealthy.”
God Bless you and thank you for reading and sharing this,
Toddy Littman