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Pensions system are an element of salary, and one may have chosen to work at the SNCF or RATP knowing that the pension plan would be better, and thus maybe accepting a lower wage.

This is a hugely important point, because it represents the opportunity to attack the neo-libs with their own rhetoric.  In the the logic of the neo-libs, the opportunity cost lost through the imposition of regulation is said to represent a takings of private wealth by the state.  

So when a company is forbidden to pursue a business opportunity, let's say that a company views laws banning certain chemical substances as forcing them to suspend production of something that they make.  This is said to be theft, a takings.

Yet when working men and women forego wages in order to receive pension payments, and an employer later reneges on paying out those benefits there is not said to be a takings.

Lesson?

The rights of individuals matter less than the rights of impersonal wealth lacking the most basic requirement for human rights: Humanity.

And I'll give my consent to any government that does not deny a man a living wage-Billy Bragg

by ManfromMiddletown (manfrommiddletown at lycos dot com) on Fri Oct 19th, 2007 at 10:07:26 AM EST
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