The pension plunderers | Prem Sikka | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk .

Prem Sikka writes:

Governments can and should provide decent state pension through progressive taxation policies, but many major companies resent paying taxes. Almost every day, companies hold elected governments to ransom by threatening to relocate elsewhere unless their demands are met. Despite mantras of corporate social responsibility companies appease stockmarkets and prioritise return to shareholders by squeezing employees and condemning millions to a life of retirement hardship. Governments simply twiddle their thumbs.

Even in the so-called golden age of pensions, the UK pensioners' lot is not a happy one. The erosion of final salary pension schemes is set to create a new era of hardship. The pensions crisis cannot be addressed without improvements to the workers' share of the GDP and shackling of the finance industry and the tax avoidance industry.

As ever, he's hit the nail on the head.