Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel cutting off Chicago’s nose to spite its face

George F. Will: The price of moral grandstanding

Politics becomes amusing when liberalism becomes theatrical with high-minded gestures. Chicago’s government, which is not normally known for elevated thinking, is feeling so morally upright and financially flush that it proposes to rise above the banal business of maximizing the value of its employees’ and retirees’ pension fund assets. Although seven funds have cumulative unfunded liabilities of $25 billion, Chicago will sacrifice the growth of those assets to the striking of a political pose so pure it is untainted by practicality.

Emulating New York and California, two deep-blue states with mammoth unfunded pension liabilities, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel (D) has hectored a $5 billion pension fund into divesting its holdings in companies that manufacture firearms.

I know I would be thrilled if my employer was playing politics with my retirement fund. Wouldn’t you be?  Isn’t it worth a little, or more likely a lot, of poverty in your old age so that a politician can act self-righteous?