Originally Posted by
GunshipGuy
Oh, Xray, you're so clever! You're right, what a stupid and baseless comment from Michael...why he just made that up. I mean, from your post it appears it's an idea that's never seen the light of day in Congress.
Errrrrrr.....
http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20081007/REG/810079894
With savings rates going down, “what do we have to start to think about in Congress of whether or not we want to continue and invest that $80 billion for a policy that is not generating what we … say it should?” Mr. Miller said.
Congress should let workers trade their 401(k) assets for guaranteed retirement accounts made up of government bonds, suggested Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at The New School for Social Research in New York.
When workers collected Social Security, the guaranteed retirement account would pay an inflation-adjusted annuity under her plan.
“The way the government now encourages 401(k) plans is to spend $80 billion in tax breaks,” which goes to the highest-income earners, Ms. Ghilarducci said.
That simply results in transferring money from taxed savings accounts to untaxed accounts, she said.
“If we implement automatic [individual retirement accounts] or if we expand the 401(k) system, all we’re doing is adding to this inefficiency,” Ms. Ghilarducci said.
Targeting Your 401(k) - WSJ.com
The main liberal objection to 401(k)s seems to be that they let average Americans control their own investment decisions for retirement. As Shlomo Benartzi, a professor at UCLA's Anderson business school, told Mr. Miller's committee, "Individuals have a tendency to buy at the peak, and then panic when the markets drop and sell at the bottom." Better to have the government do this instead.
I heard Ms. Gharebalducci... whatever.. (I'm gonna stop eating her chocolate too..) being interviewed by Mark Levin one evening. I don't listen to him with any regularity at all.. but I heard the topic, and I thought it would be interesting.. Anyway... she puts the "I" in idiot. Scary scary woman she is....