ABSTRACT
No one, twenty-five years ago, anticipated that the pension funds would come to own American business. The role and function of management, if not our institutions themselves, would be altered drastically. None of these things has happened so far. In fact, the coming of "socialism" to America has had very little impact on American institutions, American power structure, American politics, even on American political rhetoric. Pension fund socialism has its opportunities and its problems. It raises new policy issues. For pension fund socialism emerged without benefit of government programs or government policy. It was the result of pluralist, voluntary, community action, largely on the part of nongovernmental, private-sector institutions. The final political lesson of pension fund socialism is that affluence is a myth. The pension funds emerged at the same time, though quite independently, as the drive for equality of opportunity generally and equality of opportunity and rights for the country's "minorities" specifically.
