2 ms·

>Are we as small savers just idiots feeding this idiot machine? Yes. 401k should never have been the main retirement plan.

lotsofpulp 6mo ago
I assume you mean low cost broad market index funds when you write 401k, but what other mechanism has offered financial security to so many other than having lots of productive and well networked kids that believe in helping you when you are old? There is, of course, taxpayer funded retirement benefits, but that is just taking from others’ kids.
- buellerbueller 6mo ago
  Unions + Pensions
  - lotsofpulp 6mo ago
    The pensions that are so underfunded (either due to corruption or bad math) they need repeated bailouts from federal taxpayers? Hope you’re in a sufficiently politically influential union. https://apnews.com/article/biden-business-united-states-government-and-politics-retirees-09d93d2af8cc68de47eccda4a9ef0250 https://apnews.com/article/biden-business-united-states-gove... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-relief-bill-gives-86-billion-bailout-to-failing-union-pension-plans.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-relief-bill-gives-86-b... If federal taxpayers are going to bail out old people, might as well be the whole stock market so it’s not just a few politically influential unions that get bailed out. Union members not in an insufficiently influential union can have their benefits cut: https://www.pbgc.gov/employers-practitioners/multiemployer/introduction/pension-reform-act https://www.pbgc.gov/employers-practitioners/multiemployer/i...
    - buellerbueller 6mo ago
      Bail out individuals, not the wealthy. Certainly not corporations. The stock market is rigged in favor of corporations and wealth.
  - vkou 6mo ago
    What do you think pension funds invest in if not the same things as my 401K? Pensions are useful to individuals, because they support you until you die (while your 401K will either run out before you die, or will 'waste' money in the bank if you die before it runs out). But they aren't a magic money tree. They are the exact same formula. Money in, money out, it just gets distributed a little better.

lotsofpulp 6mo ago

I assume you mean low cost broad market index funds when you write 401k, but what other mechanism has offered financial security to so many other than having lots of productive and well networked kids that believe in helping you when you are old? There is, of course, taxpayer funded retirement benefits, but that is just taking from others’ kids.

buellerbueller 6mo ago
Unions + Pensions
- lotsofpulp 6mo ago
  The pensions that are so underfunded (either due to corruption or bad math) they need repeated bailouts from federal taxpayers? Hope you’re in a sufficiently politically influential union. https://apnews.com/article/biden-business-united-states-government-and-politics-retirees-09d93d2af8cc68de47eccda4a9ef0250 https://apnews.com/article/biden-business-united-states-gove... https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-relief-bill-gives-86-billion-bailout-to-failing-union-pension-plans.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-relief-bill-gives-86-b... If federal taxpayers are going to bail out old people, might as well be the whole stock market so it’s not just a few politically influential unions that get bailed out. Union members not in an insufficiently influential union can have their benefits cut: https://www.pbgc.gov/employers-practitioners/multiemployer/introduction/pension-reform-act https://www.pbgc.gov/employers-practitioners/multiemployer/i...
  - buellerbueller 6mo ago
    Bail out individuals, not the wealthy. Certainly not corporations. The stock market is rigged in favor of corporations and wealth.
- vkou 6mo ago
  What do you think pension funds invest in if not the same things as my 401K? Pensions are useful to individuals, because they support you until you die (while your 401K will either run out before you die, or will 'waste' money in the bank if you die before it runs out). But they aren't a magic money tree. They are the exact same formula. Money in, money out, it just gets distributed a little better.