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


  • Ukraine Refugees in Moldova
    Fergie Chambers
    Ukrainian Refugees Spare No Words on Zelensky Government
    22 Mar 2022
    The war in Ukraine has created millions of refugees who pass through neighboring nations such as Moldova. Their stories complicate the pro-Ukraine government narrative preferred by U.S. corporate…
  • The Coming Medicaid Purge
    Libby Watson
    The Coming Medicaid Purge
    22 Mar 2022
    Millions will lose federal health coverage when the pandemic officially ends — and contractors are poised to cash in.
  • What you need to know about the Ukraine Crisis from a Black Left Perspective with Dr. Gerald Horne
    Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley
    What you need to know about the Ukraine Crisis from a Black Left Perspective with Dr. Gerald Horne
    22 Mar 2022
    Dr. Gerald Horne joins Margaret Kimberley and Danny Haiphong to discuss his article for Black Agenda Report titled "From Crisis to Catastrophe: What is to be done in Eastern Europe?"
  • Sanctions Anyone? Imperialist Contradiction or the Unintended Consequence of Involuntary Decolonization
    Philippe Gendrault, PhD
    Sanctions Anyone? Imperialist Contradiction or the Unintended Consequence of Involuntary Decolonization
    16 Mar 2022
    The US sanctions regime has created great damage throughout the world but also hastens the decline of imperialism.
  • Black Caucus Fails on Ukraine
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    Black Caucus Fails on Ukraine
    15 Mar 2022
    The members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) follow Biden's Ukraine policy in lock step. In doing so they fail their constituents and discredit the legacy of Black politic
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us