There are two scams involved in traditional 401k's. 1) Tax rates are near historical lows, when we retire, tax rates will be much higher and we will pay on the withdrawals at the higher rates. 2) Most people invest with mutual funds and have market loses. If you can get safe money products, you will come out ahead.

Even better than a 401k is an Index Universal Life Insurance policy. The cash values grow at stock market rates and you can never lose any money (it's in the contract). You can only max out at 14% on the upside, but you have no downside. Also, you get life insurance. When you retire you can pull the money out tax-free.

If you believe that tax rates will go up, use a Roth 401k like I do. I also invest in safe money products. The rate of return has killed the S & P 500 over the past 25 years.

Unbelievable that we are even having this conversation. Taking money that belongs to one person and directing to someone it doesn't belong to is theft. It is a CRIME!! We cannot survive as a society if we allow personal and corporate welfare to be national policy. If you disagree with this, you are in favor of looting.

A word of caution here. Use a Roth 401k, not a traditional 401k. With tax rates near historical lows and the government spending us into oblivion, which way do you see tax rates going...? Of course tax rates MUST go up. Since a traditional 401k means that you get a tax deduction for the contributions now and pay ta...more

Getting rid of the permanent welfare system would get rid of the disincentive to remain poor. Getting rid of the IRS and replacing it with the Fairtax is by far the best thing we could do for the economy. All studies have shown that enacting the Fairtax would boost the economy by a minimum of 10%. Millions of jobs w...more

If we are to believe in income redistribution, then we should also believe in grade redistribution in schools. The liberal professors and teachers unions should push for the following grading system: Those who have worked hard to get good grades have benefited from an unfair advantage of being smart and need to "give b...more

If we take this income redistribution to its logical end, then everyone in America would need to be taxed heavily to pay for the poor in other countries. How can we be so greedy when there are poor in other countries? Some people want to work 60 hours a week. Others want to work 20. Some people have superior skills ...more

The whole premise of this article galls me. Kay Bell is saying that these deductions COST the government money. She sounds like a big government politician. She is saying that the money belongs to the government. It is OUR money! The discussion needs to be how much money are we as taxpayers going to give to the politic...more