Nathan Newman recounts how America's elderly have gotten poorer - and how the culprits have gotten better and better at disguising it: Yep, because of the decline in the regular pension, and its replacement by hype around the 401(k), the net result of the largest bull market in American history is that today's retirees are worse off than those in the period before Reagan unleashed the 401(k) on the world...not only did the 401(k) leave many retirees in the dust, it was a serious factor in increasing overall inequality in our society. The discusson on 401(k)s versus regular pensions is often relegated to policy wonk seminars, but this is the substance of most peoples' retirements, and is a key factor in whether we will continue to be a society of increasing economic inequality or not. It's a basic issue-- if we invest collectively for our retirement, we will generally create simple rules for payouts that encourage greater equality. If we create a system of individual accounts, with complex rules written by rich people, the end result will be greater inequality, since that's how the rules will end up being designed.