[ForHackernews]

> 401k plans are designed to replace the "pension plans" of yore

That's actually not really true. The 401(k) was an obscure provision in the Revenue Act of 1978 and it wasn't until two years later that Ted Benna realized it could be used as a loophole to set up an employer-matched retirement plan: http://www.learnvest.com/knowledge-center/your-401k-when-it-... It wasn't designed to be used this way, and that's not what the IRS had in mind when they originally drafted the rules.

Companies love them because they're cheaper than a pension plan, and crucially, they transfer all the risk and responsibility onto individual employees and away from the company.

[spacehome]

Frankly, seeing in the 80s and 90s how pensions are counted as liabilities on the company's balance sheet and can be wiped away in an engineered bankruptcy, I'm quite happy transfer the risk away from the company.