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Showing Original Post only (View all)How America’s 401(k) Revolution Rewarded the Rich and Turned the Rest of Us Into Big Losers [View all]
http://www.alternet.org/economy/401k-revolution-and-inequality
***SNIP
The Dumbest Retirement Policy in the World
Thirty years ago, as laissez-faire fanaticism took hold of America, misguided policy-makers decided that do-it-yourself retirement plans, otherwise known as 401(k)s, would magically secure our financial future in the face of gyrating markets, economic crises, unpredictable life events, stagnant wages and rampant job insecurity. It was an extraordinary shift in thinking about public policy: Instead of having predictable streams of income from traditional pensions, ordinary people with little financial expertise would suddenly transform themselves into financial gurus, putting money aside and managing complicated investments in tax-deferred accounts.
***SNIP
America, Land of Inequality
The long-term effects of an experiment gone awry are starting to become clear. The Economic Policy Institute has just released a study proving that do-it-yourself retirement is driving economic inequality, leaving regular Americans further behind than ever. Not since the Gilded Age has there been such a gulf between the rich and the rest. EPIs Retirement Inequality Chartbook offers dozens of charts that examine retirement preparedness and outcomes by income, race and ethnicity, education, gender and marital status.
***SNIP
Looking Ahead
As we approach another round of debt-ceiling drama this fall, Republicans like Eric Cantor of Virginia are howling for cuts to Social Security and Medicare at a time when most Americans are increasingly strapped in their post-work years. Thats not surprising. But unfortunately, many Democrats, including President Obama, have signaled their willingness to further rob Americans of their hard-earned retirement insurance by cutting plans through various schemes like changing the way cost-of-living adjustments are calculated, and means-testing, which Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and others point out is no more than a covert strategy to undermine such programs.
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How America’s 401(k) Revolution Rewarded the Rich and Turned the Rest of Us Into Big Losers [View all]
xchrom
Sep 2013
OP
Currently in the country near Chippewa Falls, which is near Eau Claire.
Jackpine Radical
Sep 2013
#58
My sense is that the big problem with 401k's is that participation is voluntary
badtoworse
Sep 2013
#5
The big problem is they are completely inadequate and inferior in every way to pensions.
duffyduff
Sep 2013
#33
Unless that pension is from one of the many companies that have gone into bankruptcy
hughee99
Sep 2013
#44
And if you lose your job and can't get hired again or take a giant cut? Well, there it goes.
duffyduff
Sep 2013
#34
If the same thing happened and you weren't vested in a pension plan, you'd be in worse shape
badtoworse
Sep 2013
#38
what 'we' realize is that both political parties have had the fingers in the process of fucking the
xchrom
Sep 2013
#16
There's no reason not to have a 401k, but DEPENDING on it is a disaster.
SleeplessinSoCal
Sep 2013
#21
That's Washington for you. They left a loophole a mile wide for companies to exploit.
duffyduff
Sep 2013
#32
401k's are an accident of history, policy makers didn't decide anything.
Sen. Walter Sobchak
Sep 2013
#64