Wednesday, May 9, 2012

The Government Wants to Direct Your Retirement Money

Yvonne Walker, president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 1000, which represents 95,000 California state employees, is out with an op-ed at CNN that calls for retirement plans that replace 401ks. The 401k is bad enough with its limited options and the ability for the government to tax the money at any time, but unions are pushing for more quasi-government control, which will presumably result in the unions managing some of the money.

Walker writes:
Recent research finds 401(k)-style defined contribution plans have lost their shine. IRAs and 401(k) plans lost a combined $2.8 trillion, or 47% of their value, between September 2007 and December 2008, the height of the economic recession. [As if money run by the successors of Jimmy Hoffa would do any better under crazed Fed money pumping schemes-RW]

The biggest problem with defined contribution plans is that alone they do not provide retirees with guaranteed retirement income...[Yeah, guaranteed income like SS, which is headed toward older retirement ages and lower payouts-RW]

We must work to improve and expand retirement options.

We need to explore new innovative retirement models that provide guaranteed retirement income for all workers if we are going to be a country where once again working people can reasonably expect to be able to retire.

This year, California State Sen. Kevin De León and Darrell Steinberg, the Senate president pro tempore, made headlines for introducing legislation that would allow private-sector workers to enroll in a modest, state-operated retirement program.
A similar proposal has been championed by New York City Comptroller John Liu. The plan, based on a new retirement model created by New School economics professor Teresa Ghilarducci, would pool employee and employer contributions into a professionally managed, citywide retirement fund.

Although the future of these proposals is uncertain, they are a step in the right direction.

14 comments:

  1. The only way to guarantee retirement income is to stop the devaluation of the dollar and allow people to accumulate savings.

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  2. Let people opt out of Social inSecurity and put that money in their own plan; stocks, coins, savings, a mattress, commemorative Elvis plates, a velvet painting of a dolphin and a whale getting it on...

    You know, things that hold value better than the US Dollar.

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    1. I'm telling you, go long on commemorative Elvis plates. You never hear about peak Elvis memorabilia, which will make it that much more devastating when it hits.

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    2. Texas Chris...You funny man.

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    3. Damn . . . When they told me to buy gold, I thought they meant lamé -- so I bought those garish outfits the King wore in Vegas.

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  3. This is a pure desperation move as governments scramble to grab any source of capital they can. They're not going after retirement accounts because they care about "justice" or "income security."

    They're going after retirement accounts because that's where the money is. This is the 21st century equivalent of FDR confiscating gold.

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  4. The goldbugs looks smarter by the day.

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  5. Isn't Teresa Ghilarducci the person who has gone before congress trying to encourage them to require all IRAs to hold gov't debt?

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  6. Then the various governments could run the union pension plans just like they (fail to) run their own underfunded pension plans. Better yet they could combine them and stir. Oops, no one retires except at the top. Just like the rest of us in the 'private' sector.

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  7. It's just a matter of time before this crooked Congress passes legislation to create a national retirement fund from "nationalized" private retirements accounts and give each person a "fair" set return. What is the "fair" return? The legislation will have to be passed first before we can read what's in it!!~!!!

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  8. Annuities guarantee income for Life, why not force unions to turn their pension funds over to the insurance companies...?

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  9. Whenever you have Wall Street and Washington "safeguarding" your money, you can bet you will get almost exactly what you are going to get under the current plans (Nearly Nothing!). The wolves and the crooks want you at the table, but only for the table-scraps.
    PDF

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  10. They should just invest everything in Rocket Company stock. It's bound to go up!

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