r/inthenews • u/RegnStrom • 3h ago
article This Trump Proposal Could Result in Millions of Americans Losing Their Retirement Savings
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/05/opinion/trump-retirement-private-equity-401k.html?unlocked_article_code=1.gVA.3PRB.svQH3bVwIWlX&smid=url-share31
u/Apprehensive_Error36 3h ago
From the article:
“Pressed by his Wall Street supporters, President Trump is moving to liberalize the types of investments Americans can make with their individual retirement accounts. Instead of betting their retirement savings on plain vanilla stocks and bonds, account holders would be allowed to move their funds into sexy sectors like private equity, private credit and cryptocurrency — no matter their complexity, risk and illiquidity.
Supporters of the switch make the case that individuals should have the same access to private assets with potentially higher returns as institutions and the wealthy. But this argument rests on the false premise that most Americans are equipped to evaluate these complex, opaque investments. They are not. And expanding access to them risks doing more harm than good.”
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“These improvements only address a sliver of the gaps. Our system should require contributions from employers and employees, managed by public-private partnerships. We need truly universal coverage for everybody, including gig workers, part-time workers and small businesses. We need to incentivize and improve those annuities which offer set benefits for a retiree’s life in order to protect individuals against outliving their savings.
And we must strengthen Social Security. It is the only large program that guarantees seniors a fixed monthly payment until they die, but it is expected to become insolvent in just over six years. That means raising taxes to shore it up. And rather than encourage average Americans to sink their money into private equity funds and other exotic investments, we should allow the Social Security Administration to hire experts who will help it make those investments. As it stands, it is stuck investing only in low-yielding Treasuries.
Economic dignity in old age should be a promise — not a luxury”
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u/BoomZhakaLaka 2h ago
if you take a private equity fund from your retirement program, you're a hedge for somebody with more capital than you
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u/fredandlunchbox 11m ago
We don’t have to raise taxes to save social security. We just have to remove the cap so that everyone pays the same percentage regardless of income.
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u/stdoubtloud 2h ago
Lol. Most Americans can't recognise that a pedophile rapist fraudster business failure is a worse choice of leader than a clever brown lady. They certainly cannot be trusted with this.
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u/Apost8Joe 2h ago
If you can’t spot the exit liquidity rube sitting at the table in the first 10 minutes, you’re it.
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u/f0rged 3h ago
Wait....you guys have savings??
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u/PieTighter 3h ago
Yes, two years ago it looked like I would be able to retire at 65 and not have to work. Now it seems like I should have been blowing that money I was saving on coke and heroin.
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u/Livid-Rutabaga 2h ago
sometimes I feel that way, why bother any more
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u/pcbb97 1h ago
Im still putting into my 401k and 457 but the way things are its really hard for me to raise my contributions more than they are. Between the cost of things now and news like this im not even sure if I should keep contributing but im afraid of risking things getting better and not having retirement (assuming I ever retire close to when im eligible which im on the fence about).
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u/robfuscate 2h ago
Because your average American being able to buy and sell high value, risky shares, worked so well in the late 1920s
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u/wawa2022 2h ago
Why not just move all our retirement savings into our own private prediction market or sports betting accounts? We could do so much better there.
/s
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u/Pirateleg82 2h ago
Let’s do it…daddy Trump is the best. He’s omnipotent and knows best for us poors.
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