The Gun Counter

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Rush has been talking about this today. I suspect Sean Hannity will too.

If Urkel is stupid enough to openly supports this, he will lose the election. A lot of his young supporters have 401(K)s, and even though they have taken big hits on their accounts the last few months, they won't take kindly to the dot-guv nationalizing their personal retirement accounts, which is what this basically amounts to. 401(K)s promarily benefit the middle and lower class workers, due to matching employer contributions. Take away the deductability from the employer, and the employer will stop contributing. Take away the tax deferment from the employee's portion, and the employee's taxes go up.

Please keep throwing these ideas on the table, DNC. You're gonna keep weakening Urkel's lead......

As for myself, the day I suspect that Congress is about to pass legislation to nationalize my IRAs or 401(K), that is the day I cash them in, pay the full tax amount plus penalty, and and seriously consider transfering the money offshore, to a country that does not have banking and tax treaties with the USA. I'm NOT going to say which country. But it ain't Switzerland..... It's a lot closer.

McCain/Palin need to be shouting this one from the rooftops too. At least I'm finally starting to see some ads on tv from them with the Joe the Plumber question. Spread the wealth around, my ass.

My parents have an apartment in a European country. Dad says when he sells it he'll divide the proceeds evenly between me and my brother. I've been thinking I might just leave my share over there...

I'd support abolishing 401k, as long as it's replaced with something that allows me to exceed the STUPID $9K/year limit.

The thing with 401(K)'s is that it's "wealth", and as such it's something that can be "spread around".
This happens regularly all over the world, I believe it happened in Argentina fairly recently, and I remember when it happened here. The government simply said that the people that had money in a certain form of retirement funds had made "windfall profits" with them, and simply went in and took a good chunk out of it.

When you have politicians with socialist agendas, any large amount of funds sitting in some accounts somewhere is just a red flag waiting to be used "for the good of the people". All they need is a reason and a somewhat plausible alibi.
They can just claim something like "the government can use the funds more effectively until you need it back, and they'll give it back to you then. Promise. Honest. Trust us."

Erik wrote:The thing with 401(K)'s is that it's "wealth", and as such it's something that can be "spread around".
This happens regularly all over the world, I believe it happened in Argentina fairly recently, and I remember when it happened here. The government simply said that the people that had money in a certain form of retirement funds had made "windfall profits" with them, and simply went in and took a good chunk out of it.

If it's gone, they can't take it. And there are numerous ways to protect your privacy and your wealth, especially regarding offshore banking, corporations, trusts, etc.
The question is at what monetary level it actually becomes worthwhile to pursue. If a person is interested, I suggest starting with Goggle. Find an attorney who specialises in this sort of thing. Attorney/client priviledge is a good shield, as is the corporate veil.

Exactly. After that experience, lots of people simply took out all the money they could from those sort of funds, and that money just disappeared, presumably "spent on buying stuff".
And at the same time, there are whole bank offices that specializes in helping people that have been "working abroad" to manage their money before they come back home.
People learn eventually, those that dont see it coming will learn when it happens, and those that wont learn before will have to stand with their hand out to the government when retirement comes and their funds are gone. Lots of people like that here now.