Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Those Ever-Shrinking 401Ks and the Theft of Retirement Security
21 Dec 2011
🖨️ Print Article

For most of the 20th century, until the 1980s, each generation of retirees had a somewhat higher standard of living than the last.  With the Reagan era advent of federal policies encouraging private employers to raid and discontinue defined benefit pensions, that trend stopped.  The current generation of retirees are discovering that their 401Ks are almost never sufficient to allow a dignified retirement.  They've been robbed.  401Ks are subject to the stock market, which favors insiders, and financial managers and the retirement-industrial complex extract as much as a quarter of all 401K savings in parasitic fees.  In this Against the Grain interview James Russell explains why Wall Street loves privatized and individual retirement accounts, and hates defined beneift pensions and social security,



Your browser does not support the audio element.

listen
http://www.againstthegrain.org/files/files/atg/atg_2014.11.12_401ks.mp3

More Stories


  • Jeremy Kuzmarov
    Renegade African-American Soldier Should Be Remembered For Resisting White Supremacy and Colonialism
    04 Mar 2026
    David Fagen's defection demonstrated the history of Black solidarity with oppressed people.
  • BAR Radio Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio February 27, 2026
    27 Feb 2026
    In this week’s segment, we discuss Trump administration proposals to disenfranchise voters and unconstitutionally give the federal government control over elections. But we begin with an analysis of…
  • Jacqueline Luqman
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Venezuela's Bolivarian Revolution In the Aftermath of U.S. Aggression
    27 Feb 2026
    The Simon Bolivar Institute in Caracas, Venezuela, hosted a delegation from the International Brigade for Peace and Solidarity with Venezuela. We’re joined by one of those delegates, Jacqueline…
  • Black voters matter
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Voting Rights Threatened by SAVE Act and Federal Election Takeover Plot
    27 Feb 2026
    The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act was passed in the House of Representatives and would disenfranchise millions of people, as would Trump’s plan to unconstitutionally “nationalize”…
  • Black Alliance for Peace
    BAP Condemns Kidnapping and Torture of Kenyan Revolutionary Leader
    27 Feb 2026
    Kenya presents itself as a regional stable democracy. The torture and framing of the Marxist party leader belies this narrative.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us