Bend Over America: Now The SEIU Wants Your 401k!

Market Ticker ^ | 3/25/2010 | Karl Denninger

[FReepaholic]

Having ruined the pension funds of Americans nationally through corrupt and utterly unsustainable "projections" of future growth labor unions are now targeting your money to make up the difference:

One of the nation's largest labor unions, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is promoting a plan that will centralize all retirement plans for American workers, including private 401(k) plans, under one new "retirement system" for the United States.

In effect, government pensions for everyone, not unlike the European system and regardless of personal choice.

Yes, because labor unions have done such a great job of managing their pension plans, right?

Oh wait, they haven't.  In fact, virtually none of them are actuarially sound, and they know it.  So instead of addressing this (which would mean that workers would have to put up much more of their wages to be funneled into these funds) the SEUI is effectively advocating stealing your 401k - to cover for their outrageously rosy "estimates" on portfolio returns (which in fact have been negative over the last ten years.)

I may have been early in my "What's Broken: All Of It" Ticker about a year ago, but it also looks like I was right.

[Minipax]

The government doesn't consider 401K accounts to be privately owned until taxes are paid on the money. They consider them government property already, so they will nationalize them in some way - probably with some twist so the average doofus doesn't think "his" retirement account is affected.

The average doofus has put very little into 401k's anyway, and will see this as a net win. One of the many benefits of living in a country that now has more tax-takers than tax-payers.