Word: ghilarducci
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...Altman is not alone. Teresa Ghilarducci, an economics professor at the New School, has proposed a plan in which the government would divert 5% of everyone's wages. In return, you would be guaranteed in retirement a check for 26% of your final salary every year until you died. Altman would also like to expand Social Security to pay an additional 20% of workers' final pay. It's unlikely Congress would go for that at the moment...
...This time, all hell broke loose. Her proposal caught the attention of talk-radio juggernaut Rush Limbaugh, and over the next few weeks Limbaugh hammered on Ghilarducci's idea as a Democratic plot to kill the 401(k). "McCain has gotta tie Obama to these people," he said on the air. Republican presidential candidate John McCain did try, but only perfunctorily. It didn't help him much on Election...
...Limbaugh has since dropped the subject, but it is far from dead. In fact, it's evolving. While Limbaugh took care to describe Ghilarducci's proposals correctly even as he castigated them, word has since spread, and warped, in some conservative circles of a purported Democratic plan to confiscate 401(k)s. Ghilarducci, who thinks existing accounts should be grandfathered under any new scheme, says she's still being swamped with email from people berating her for trying to steal their money. (That's Wall Street...
...Meanwhile, Ghilarducci's long list of 401(k) deficiencies hasn't gotten any shorter, and the Democrats, who as of January will dominate Washington, may just try to do something about them...
...retirement-savings system for working families might look like. There have been several proposals (including one by Barack Obama during the campaign) to create modestly subsidized, automatic IRAs, at least for the more than 50% of private-sector workers who don't have access even to 401(k)s. Ghilarducci wants more - a government-run plan, financed in part by the end of the 401(k) tax deduction, that would guarantee a 3% return above inflation. Don't think that's a good deal? Fine. But remember that for most Americans, the 401(k) isn't either...