Justin Fox writes about those out to kill the savings instrument:
Unlike pensions, 401(k)s are voluntary, and many workers either don't participate or don't set aside enough money to give them a shot at a comfortable retirement. Those who do save enough often bungle their investment choices. Those who choose well pay higher investment fees generally than pension funds do. Even participants in the best-run, lowest-cost retirement funds face the risk that the market will tank as it has done this year when they're close to retirement. At retirement comes another issue: pensions insure against the risk that you'll outlive your money, because they pay until you die; 401(k)s don't. And finally, the tax breaks built into the 401(k) about $80 billion a year fall mostly in the laps of high earners.
The alternative, Ghilarducci's government-run pension plan, doesn't sound very promising. State governments have vastly underfunded the public pensions they are already responsible for.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2008/12/401-not-o-k/207854/
