Justin Fox, Columnist

That 401(k) Tax Break Shouldn't Be Sacred

Millions of Americans benefit from it. Many more millions don't.

October 26, 2017 at 1:29 PM UTC

Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business, economics and other topics involving charts. A former editorial director of the Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth of the Rational Market.”

Will they or won't they?
Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg

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Despite President Donald Trump's Twitter promise Monday that "There will be NO change to your 401(k)," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said Wednesday that he and his Republican colleagues are still working on tax proposals that would change your 401(k).

Whether this is politically wise or not, I will leave to others to discern (OK, it probably isn't), but I figure this is as good a time as any to run through what's wrong with the 401(k), or at least what's wrong with having made it a centerpiece of our country's retirement savings system.