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


  • The Supreme Court Will Rule on Moore v. Harper
    Black Agenda Radio , Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    The Supreme Court Will Rule on Moore v. Harper
    16 Dec 2022
    The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Moore v. Harper, a case brought by North Carolina legislators who argue for the discredited “independent state legislature” theory. Eliza Sweren-Becker…
  • Brittney Griner and the U.S. State
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Brittney Griner and the U.S. State
    14 Dec 2022
    Brittney Griner's ordeal in Russia is over. But she has been secreted away for "reintegration" and the U.S. continues its own brand of international hostage taking.
  • ESSAY: Negroes Speak of War, Langston Hughes, 1933
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Negroes Speak of War, Langston Hughes, 1933
    14 Dec 2022
    What benefits do Black folk get by endorsing or participating in the white man’s war? Revisiting an anti-war statement by Langston Hughes.
  • On International Human Rights Day: Money for Ukraine and War But Austerity for the People
    ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    On International Human Rights Day: Money for Ukraine and War But Austerity for the People
    14 Dec 2022
    The U.S. does not respect the right to health care, housing, employment, or education while making war on the rest of the world. What does the idea of human rights amount to in this country?
  • Ghost Stories of Capitalism: Racism is REAL, and It’s a Class Struggle
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    Ghost Stories of Capitalism: Racism is REAL, and It’s a Class Struggle
    14 Dec 2022
    From culture wars to identity politics, it's easy to get sucked into toxic rhetoric and forget the reality of racism staring the US in the face.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us