401K Train Wreck/GOP Driving Retirement To Extinction.

[TheMastersNemesis]

The GOP designed financial system leaves workers saving for retirement little option except Wall Street crap shoot. Ever since the the repeal of Glass Steagle even if you have money for retirement your only option is some form of 401K. By the time you put money from your next check into your 401K that money is just about guaranteed to be gone by the time you retire. It will be gone due to fees and sudden downturns of the market at just the right time. Saving for your own retirement is really a "no pea shell game" and we need to quit drinking the kool aid.

The 401K which was a GOP idea supported by its business allies was meant to be a supplement to Social Security and other pension plans. Now it is the only vehicle where a worker can put their money. Banks now want to charge you for having savings instead of paying you 3+% for having money in savings. Corporate bonds, municipal bonds, government bonds et al now pay almost nothing in interest because interest rates are kept artificially low to supposedly stimulate the economy.

The conservatives and GOP have completely rearranged the financial system and he average guy is a loser all the time. And the new game is to have American workers investing in global stocks on whatever ponzi scheme the corporations come up with.

And here is the biggest catch of all. Most workers now will never have enough money to even have a 401K because the new Reagan economy creates only jobs you cannot feed a pigeon on. And you cannot really blame Obama because he is stuck with a job creation or rather destruction model that the GOP and its business allies designed since the Reagan years.

Unless we restore the old "social contract" with the work force we have after WWII I really see no future for working American except a "pine box" at the end of the work road.

PS. You cannot really blame Dems because big money and a corrupt media has driven them right ward because any progressive faces millions of dollars against them and voters seem to vote in favor of money and not pro worker politicians. Add these cultural divides and liberal politicians have to run right just to get elected.

Clinton ran as a "new right leaning" Democrat because the voters would have never elected a left leaning pro worker politician and the rest is history. Try running as a "liberal FDR Democrat" and you would get Rand Paul for president.

[RB TexLa]

1. Where do you get these facts?

My 401k, Roth IRA, regular IRA, and HSA have increased every year I have had them with minimum fees on the 401k and no fees on the IRAs or HSA.

My savings accounts all pay interest and have no fees.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. I think the OP ...

is a tad hyperbolic, but the point is ... 401ks, and all market-based defined contribution retirements, are unstable/unpredictable, as they depend on the market's performance.

[godevil10]

3. Exactly and that is why it is called a "market." You take some form of risk when

you invest in anything (even cash under the mattress has an inflationary risk). My life, as most peoples, has been full of various type of risk that I have had to take. For some darn reason there appears to be "no free lunches."

[kimbutgar]

4. I keep 75% of my 401 k in cash and have a 0 coupon muni bond that matures when I turn 67

I have worked many years in wall street been burned by mutual funds. Wall street is a gambling casino for the wealthy.

[bvar22]

5. " Try running as a "liberal FDR Democrat" and you would get Rand Paul for president." ??

Obama ran as a Liberal/Populist, and won BIG in 2008.

*Raise Taxes on the RICH

*Raise-the-CAP on FICA deductions

*Make EFCA the "Law of the Land"

*Put on comfortable shoes and Walk-the-Line with LABOR

*Re-negiotiate NAFTA

*Label our food with GMO warnings and Country of Origin

*Create a Public Option for Health Insurance plus NO Mandate to BUY Insurance

This stuff is straight out of the Kucinich Camp,
and Obama STILL won....... BIG!

A fire breathing, charismatic Populist (a la Huey Long),
running on a platform of:
[font size=3]If you Work for a Living, you have been getting SCREWED by the RICH for over 30 years"[/font]
can WIN anywhere.

Extra votes if he/she can shoot a gun and ride a horse without looking like an idiot.

[Progressive dog]

7. That was funny

Some true, some not so much but your conclusion is funny.

A fire breathing, charismatic Populist (a la Huey Long),
running on a platform of:
If you Work for a Living, you have been getting SCREWED by the RICH for over 30 years"
can WIN anywhere.

[Progressive dog]

6. Glass Steagall and 401k's are only related because they

both have something to do with money.

[hughee99]

8. How was the GOP idea of the 401k able to get through a Democratic house,

Democratic Senate (where they even had a filibuster-proof majority) and get signed by Jimmy Carter in 1978?

We need to go back to the old system, because that GUARANTEES someone's retirement... unless the company you worked for goes out of business, gets bought up, or declares bankruptcy... or if you work for the city of Detroit.

The old system has serious issues too.

For people that have a 401k and have seen a steady increase in value each year, it's going to be a hard sell telling them they're getting ripped off while they're reading stories in the paper every day about people getting screwed out of their pensions.

[edhopper]

9. The 401K

was fine as a supplement to pensions for those that could afford to put away some money. i.e.; upper middle class.
It has become a replacement for pensions, and in that it has failed. Most people do not have nearly enough to retire on. And with wage stagnation, also a result of Union busting which was a prime cause of the pensions disappearing as well, it is harder and harder to make enough to save.
On top of that they markets have become so volatile, that your 401K can lose a large percent of it's worth overnight, and the safer investments like bonds and CDs return nothing.
The 401K is a failed experiment.


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/study-401k-retirement-plans-failing-most-workers/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnwasik/2013/04/24/why-401ks-have-failed/

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/sep/04/business/la-fi-mo-the-401k-retirement-system-is-a-failure-for-most-study-says-20130904

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-callahan/401k-a-perfect-failure_b_1574834.html

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/business-economy-financial-crisis/retirement-gamble/teresa-ghilarducci-why-the-401k-is-a-failed-experiment/

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/sustainability/consumed/father-modern-401k-says-it-fails-many-americans