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


  • Al Mayadeen English
    Bessent Admits Engineering Dollar Shortage to Destabilize Iran
    11 Feb 2026
    The US Treasury Secretary admits Washington engineered a dollar shortage in Iran, triggering currency collapse, economic unrest, and foreign-backed riots against that state.
  • Essam Elkorghli
    On the Assassination of Saif Al-Islam Qaddafi: Another Tale of Imperialist Treason
    11 Feb 2026
    The son of President Muammar Qaddaffi, Saif Qaddafi, has been assassinated by local forces, some of whom contributed to the destruction of a flourishing Libya.  A background to the murder and…
  • John Perry
    Nicaragua’s Economy “Weathers Multiple Shocks” Including US Attacks
    11 Feb 2026
    Nicaragua has built a resilient economy against the odds. Now, that success is being met with escalating economic attacks from the U.S.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio February 6, 2026
    06 Feb 2026
    In this week’s segment, we analyze the first month of Zohran Mamdani’s administration as mayor of New York City. But we begin with discussion of a new book from an activist and writer about the…
  • Arlene Eisen
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    In The Worldwide Family of Militant Women
    06 Feb 2026
    We're joined by Arlene Eisen, author of the new book, In the Worldwide Family of Militant Women, published by Iskra Books. Arlene Eisen has been a militant in the struggle against imperialism since…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us