Welfare For Wall Street: Fees On Retirement Accounts

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. The sad reality is that many defined pensions

have been gutted. Employees who worked thirty or more years expecting to retire on a decent pension suddenly were advised that they'd get half or less of what had been promised. The employers who were supposed to take on the risk of funding often didn't bother to do so properly. Or they declared bankruptcy and got out from under any pension obligations.

A 401k, properly invested, isn't subject to such whims.

I've experienced the gutting of my pension. I'm getting a third of what I was originally promised. meanwhile, my 401k (different company) has done quite nicely. It's worth more to me than the failed promise of the pension.

The other thing that is frustrating in all this praise of pensions is that at best fewer than half of employees were in jobs that promised a pension. Social Security came about in no small part because relatively few workers could look forward to a pension.