NY Times discussion on 401K plans.....

[Aviation Pro]

...the NY Times invited several "experts" to discuss 401K plans. Of course, these experts are no smarter than anyone else and refuse to point the finger of judgement at the motherfuckers who caused the debacle of switching from guaranteed pensions to these restrictive investment vehicles masquerading as "taking control of your own future." Here's a few paragraphs from the lead and check out the howler of dripping sarcasm from one Elliot Chase:


Tens of millions of Americans are enrolled in private employer-sponsored retirement plans — the great majority of them in 401(k) plans, which long ago replaced traditional pension benefits. These plans are easy to participate in with payroll deduction, and most people — once signed up — don’t spend much time thinking about the investments they’ve chosen.

All that has changed in recent months. The huge loss of value in those accounts, caused by the stock market decline, has imperiled retirements for older workers and caused younger workers to wonder whether they should have participated at all.

Given the wipe-out of years of savings, are there ways to make retirement nest eggs safer? What might replace the 401(k) as the dominant savings vehicle?

Alicia H. Munnell, Center for Retirement Research
Jacob F. Kirkegaard, research fellow, Peterson Institute
Thomas R. Saving, economist, Texas A & M
Paul Westbrook, financial planner
Teresa Ghilarducci, economist, The New School
David C. John, senior fellow, Heritage Foundation
Thomas C. Scott, money manager

Elliot Chase's response:

What we really need is a new social security system with its basic investment component a series of derivatives and it needs a new Czar, say someone like Phil Gramm of Texas.

This whole meltdown could have been avoided if we had given the Republicans full access to the outdated social security system. The could have raised the administrative costs from the current, measley two tenths of one percent to say a healthy three per cent, which would have given Wall Street at least another ten years of strong bonuses.

Finally, we need to implement the final phase of Reaganomics and return to a contract labor system where every worker needs to be tied to a job for life, travel needs to be restricted and the vote restricted again to white males owning property. In this way the wealth generated by all of this stable and cheap labor could trickle down to the workers and field hands in due time. Of course we would have to come up with a more politically correct term for serfdom but everyone on the whole would be a lot happier.

— Elliot Chase

[dkofos]

1. WTF!! phil gramm should be in fucking prison along with leech and bliley

And anyone else that voted for the bill

[Aviation Pro]

2. It's sarcasm, read my entry notes and the whole comment....

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