patrick.net

"Our retirement system is organized to provide the greatest possible profits to the finance industry. The switch from defined benefit plans to defined contributions allows the finance industry to prey on amateurs trying to make complex investment decisions. It provides massive tax advantages to the industry as well, making their fees tax deductible.

By deferring taxes on retirement investments, we are essentially financing retirement with borrowed money. Every dollar in taxes deferred on retirement savings has to be replaced with a dollar borrowed along with money to pay the interest on the borrowed money until the taxes are finally paid.

In short, we have an enormously profitable retirement system. Profitable for the industry at the expense of the rest of us. And the result is more insecurity, rather than the secure retirement most of us seek."

-comment from NYT reader Ross Williams

When IRAs were created my wife said it would be another way to rip off employees.

The government incentivizes people to fork their savings over to wall street. Now let's all practice looking surprised that this benefits banksters and the politically priviliged at the expense of working folk. MID,,,employee provided health insurance deduction,,,,if the usfedgov is behind it, know that it is bad for your health