"under funded"

I was just listening to Richard D Wolff comment upon the abandonment of Detroit, the so-called bankruptcy.

One phrase lept out at me, a phrase which I've heard many times, and which is not an exact quote of Wolff, but here it is:  The pension fund is "under funded".

I recently was battered with that phrase during a long conversation with someone who operates uncritically with standard categories--what Trots would call a "bourgeoise liberal".

It seems to me that when people say that pensions are "under funded", they are engaged in a bit of sophistry or lying rhetoric.  They present (even unwittingly) a matter of ethics or morality or politics as if it were merely a matter of accounting or "cold hard facts". 

In other words, when a CEO or politician says that a pension fund is "under funded", they are really saying that they will not keep the promises which were made to retired workers during their working lives.  In other words, to paraphrase Amy Goodman, when they say the pension is "under funded", they are telling the workers to "drop dead". ---And, without pensions and healthcare, they will.

In other words, it's a question of murder-----even if, (here I borrow from Ted Honderich) the deaths take time to occur....

Reference/Recommended Viewing:
RD Wolff on "Democracy Now"

http://rdwolff.com/content/democracy-now-detroit-spectacular-failure