So you want the goverment to manage teh risk you take on your investments. . . that’s called a “T” Bill. Oh by the way, the countries you mention pay for their “socialized” health care by taxing the public. France has 60% plus taxes. Yes they get universal health care BUT you wait for months to get a surgery unless it’s an emergency. In addition, all those countries have health systems that have not worked and they have been moving more toward our health care system design for years offering private insurance plans that supplement the government plan.

Individuals can ABSOLUTELY invest on their own and succeed. “Good things come to those that help themselves!” educate yourself, get help from your company’s 401k plan advisors, go to your investment company’s website (Fidelity) and learn. My 401k plan has grown from nothing in 1980 to multi hundreds of thousands of dollars and NO OTHER savings prgram could have done that. YES the last year has been hell financially and it is due to the unscrupulous people in the mortgage industry and in some major financial companies who were basically GREEDY beyond belief and their greed helped destroy our economy. Oh by the way, the government was supposed to be monitoring the mortgage and financial industries, that worked well didn’t it. Some of the bank auditors were corrupt. You can’t legislate against that.

DO you know that the stock market has gained close to 25% since January? If you continued to put money into your 401k and left what you had before the crisis right where it was, you would have seen quite a nice recovery in just 6 months. Capitalism works if teh government leaves it alone and puts programs into place that put money into the hands of small business and individuals so they spend it and the jobs are created to produce the goods and services these people are buying.

Let goverment put regulations in place that regualte at a macro level to protect us as much as possible and then let capitalism do its thing.

The risk is shifted in IRAs & 401Ks to employees from employers, but that could (at least for most people) be compensated in additional education to employees. More straight-forward information on the (short-term and long-term) risks/returns of “investments” and more easy-to-understand information on fees, etc. and tax consequences would be beneficial to the average employee.

Part of the problem with today’s employees is the complete lack of planning for the future. Instead of putting money aside for 30-years down the road, people will spend $350 on an iPhone with $150/month plan. They want to have all the gee-whiz gadgets, HDTVs, satellite/cable TV, clothes, cars, and party lifestyle today without planning and putting something away for the future. Later in life when they are destitute who do you think will be asking the “governement” to help them and who do you think the goverment will come to (tax) to “help” these people out (those who led prudent lives, planned, and put money away for the future).

I have been working for 25 years and paying SS/Medicare taxes. I will work for at least another 15 years and pay even more SS/Medicare taxes. However, when I’m retirment age in 2037 SS will be underfunded such that only about 2/3 of promised benefits could be paid (if the money was actually in the SS “trust” accounts… which it isn’t… politicians have already spent that money on “current” projects/programs and put “IOUs” into the “trust” accounts). In all reality, my generation will not have any money left for SS/Medicare benefits and future generations will be taxed even more for even less benefits.

I trust my own knowledge and private investment opportunities much more than the government. I deferred my gratification by going to school and obtaining an undergraduate and a graduate degree so that I can have greater life-long earning potential. I have worked hard to get where I’m at in life. I fear for the future that the few of us that have taken the time to read and learn about investing (instead of worrying about the latest pop star, sports hero, party club, or whatever other use of their time is apparently more important than taking a little time to learn about and plan for their future). In the not-so-distant future, those of us who have any financial means are going to be hit heavily to support popular programs for the uneducated or unmotivated masses who choose to take the easy/fun route now.

While transparency in 401k fees is a great idea, I’d like to first see transparency in my government – we’ve seem to have lost that as bills are rammed through Congress without the light of day or ordinary citizens having had the opportunity to know what is being passed before it is.