I’ve recently seen posts from the Troglopundit and No Sheeples Here concerning the remarks of VP Obiden on the transfer of our 401k retirement funds to a newly created, government run program. What? Another government run program proposed by the Obummer regime? Say it isn’t so! *cough*.

This particular gem reminds me of a guy I went to school with, which is to say, we were in the same building from time to time. Anyway this piece of work would come up behind you at lunch, reach around to put his finger in your dessert while asking “Hey, are you going to eat that?” I assume he thought that if he ruined it you would let him have it. As it turned out, he got it alright but not like he planned.

Our schoolyard bully of a government is trying the same tactic. They play havok with the stock market, run the banks, mortgage companies and private sector crazy with their socialist, anti-capitalist agenda, then turn around with a cupped ear to pretend we called for help, offering assistance we did not ask for.

What we are asking for, that they could clearly hear if they removed the boot from our collective necks, is for them to leave us the flock alone!

This 401k business came to my attention back in November of ’08. I thought it was spooky to say the least and was about to write a letter to some congress person or another (I no bloggy at the time), then what do you know, an election broke out that took my train of thought away from the 401k issue.

It seems that Congress has had it’s eye on your 401k for a while. Back in November of 08, the Carolina Journal Online published a detailed article on the hearings being conducted by the Democrats in the House to investigate retirement and pension plan “reform” with regard to the stock market fluctuations of the moment.

The most alarming of the speakers was Teresa Ghilarducci, who as my research showed, was no stranger to the idea of wealth redistribution through the tactic of class envy politics. To paraphrase, she used the “We’re too stoopid to be trusted to make our own decisions” excuse to thinly camouflage the underlying redistribution mantra. But then, she really didn’t hide it too well:

In a radio interview with Kirby Wilbur in Seattle on Oct. 27, 2008, Ghilarducci explained that her proposal doesn’t eliminate the tax breaks, rather, I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading  spreading the wealth.

In a Feb. 2002 paper she wrote:

Congress also can’t change human nature. Good humans are notoriously bad investors. Human charming traits include overconfidence (we rank our appearance higher than those around us), saliency (to think what just happened with happen with a higher probability) and we want instant gratification (Shiller 2000). Increasingly, middle-class workers are using their so-called retirement accounts as liquid savings to buy housings, finance periods of unemployment and fund children’s education. In short, human nature is such that we buy high, sell low, and trade too often.

I contend that, although it may be true in some instances, overall, it’s not the stoopid investors making bad choices, it’s the government intrusion into the marketplace and purposeful manipulation by the powerful elite in Washington that has wrought this economic downturn.

UPDATE: Doug Ross comes through with some corroborating info.

Folks, we must stop them from destroying this country. Their aim is nothing short of a socialized America, with a majority of the population dependent on government for every want or need. Witness Greece and the EU to see how that turns out.

Hey Teresa, Nancy, Harry and Barry, keep your freaking paws off my 401k!

A little background info I gathered:

Mzzz. Ghilarducci is on staff at The Economic Policy Institute. That name sounds pretty benign doesn’t it? I wonder who pays for those enlightening little reports that come out of the institute. I’ll tell you what though, “Agenda for Shared Prosperity” sounds like wealth redistribution to me, which is socialism or communism how ever you slice it.

If you are interested, here are the papers and records of testimony I found in 2008 plus a few more I found today. In no particular order:

http://edlabor.house.gov/testimony/2008-10-07-TeresaGhilarducci.pdf

http://www.law.harvard.edu/programs/lwp/people/Wertheim/papers/ghilarducci/ghilarducci_12_06.pdf

http://www.press.uillinois.edu/journals/irra/proceedings2002/vi-ghilarducci.html

http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/edu/hedcew6-87.000/hedcew6-87.htm

http://republicans.edlabor.house.gov/archive/hearings/107th/eer/enronthree21302/stein.htm

http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/health-plans/erisa.htm