Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.
  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire
Those Ever-Shrinking 401Ks and the Theft of Retirement Security
21 Dec 2011
🖨️ Print Article

For most of the 20th century, until the 1980s, each generation of retirees had a somewhat higher standard of living than the last.  With the Reagan era advent of federal policies encouraging private employers to raid and discontinue defined benefit pensions, that trend stopped.  The current generation of retirees are discovering that their 401Ks are almost never sufficient to allow a dignified retirement.  They've been robbed.  401Ks are subject to the stock market, which favors insiders, and financial managers and the retirement-industrial complex extract as much as a quarter of all 401K savings in parasitic fees.  In this Against the Grain interview James Russell explains why Wall Street loves privatized and individual retirement accounts, and hates defined beneift pensions and social security,



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://www.againstthegrain.org/files/files/atg/atg_2014.11.12_401ks.mp3

More Stories

  • BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
    Roberto Sirvent, BAR Book Forum Editor
    BAR Book Forum: Damien M. Sojoyner’s Book, “Joy and Pain”
    11 Jan 2023
    This week’s featured author is Damien M. Sojoyner. Sojoyner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine. His book is Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and…
  • The FBI Wants to Put Me On Trial for Fighting for Black Freedom. Put the Colonial State on Trial! We Will Win!
    Omali Yeshitela
    The FBI Wants to Put Me On Trial for Fighting for Black Freedom. Put the Colonial State on Trial! We Will Win!
    11 Jan 2023
    Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People's Socialist Party, writes about the liberation struggle in the wake of a possible federal indictment.
  • Bolsonaro Supporters Attack the Brazilian Government
    Brian Mier , Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Bolsonaro Supporters Attack the Brazilian Government
    11 Jan 2023
    Supporters of former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro vandalized the supreme court, congress, and presidential palace. Brazilian based journalist Brian Mier explains.
  • The Urgent Need for Internationalism on the Left in the US
    Ryan Napoli
    The Urgent Need for Internationalism on the Left in the US
    11 Jan 2023
    Any person or movement claiming to be leftist must be internationalist and anti-imperialist.
  • Spirit of Mandela Launches About the People Project
    Broadcast Team of Spirit of Mandela Coalition
    Spirit of Mandela Launches About the People Project
    11 Jan 2023
    The Spirit of Mandela coalition announces the launch of the About the People (AtP) broadcast project. 
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us