BANKING ON DEATH: Or, Investing in Life: The History and Future of Pensions

Blackburn's dry and detailed book covers an enormous range. It traces the development of pensions from early modern Europe to the present day and expands the discussion to cover a wide variety of government public assistance programs, annuity products sold by insurance companies and mutual assistance organizations. The author's examination of funding pensions leads to his extensive treatment of topics such as corporate governance, tax policy and executive compensation. Due to the range covered, most of this material is necessarily superficial. The main focus argues Blackburn's position that "the workers and citizens should, collectively, take over capitalist institutions" with the goal of "the suppression of the fundamental mechanisms of capitalist competition." This is to be accomplished, he says, not through violent revolution, but through tax incentives to worker-controlled not-for-profit pension funds, which would invest in sustainable, progressive and responsible economic projects. However, he does not discuss the discrepancy between the mild means and dramatic ends. Still a visionary, Blackburn later shifts his attention to study the disappearance of the financial services industry and the shift of union pension funds from corruption and inefficiency to a supernaturally wise custodianship. There are, in fact, two unintegrated books here: an extensive history of pensions, and a visionary tract. As a history, the book is uneven, with the best coverage concerning the political maneuvering in the 1970s in the United States and Britain that led to today's state. As a visionary tract, Blackburn's position is unpopular both with radicals and the mainstream, but could convince some. (Sept.)