401(k) Plans Will Be Gone Within a Decade: Allison Schrager

If you are among the 56% of US workers with a retirement plan, I have some bad news for you: Your 401(k) will be gone in 10 years, tops. Not the money, thank goodness — Americans have trillions of dollars in these accounts, and there is an entire industry built around them — but the plans themselves.

There has been a brewing intellectual movement to get rid of the 401(k) for several years, with scholars on both the right and left questioning its value. And as the federal government gets increasingly desperate for new sources of revenue, the tax treatment of ...