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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

>These accounts are no more a "give away" to the rich than the progressive income tax schedule is a "give away" to the poor.

Since only the rich are employed by employers who offer the benefits of these accounts, it is effectively a give away to the rich. If it wasn't a give away restricted to a certain populace, then it would be de-linked from employment and available for everyone.

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Lots of employers offer these. Only if your definition of "the rich" is extremely broad is it restricted to "the rich", first of all. Certainly many people making 60-80k have access to these accounts, and quite often some level of employer matching. I guess you could call that "rich" relative to some people, but it's not what I think of when I hear "the rich".

Secondly, nobody (well, maybe some people, but mostly nobody) describes the progressive tax schedule as a "give away" to the poor, despite it representing a much larger wealth transfer than these retirement accounts.

jlmorton was referring to the employer contribution limits of $56k, which are utilized, obviously, by rich companies.

> Since only the rich are employed by employers who offer the benefits of these accounts

So, being an employee of a company that offers a 401k is the new definition of "rich"?

I was referring to the concept of employers being able to contribution $56k to an employee's 401k (which only happens if employee is already highly compensated), as opposed to IRAs being capped at $6k.

>Since only the rich are employed by employers who offer the benefits of these accounts

Everyone and their brother has a 401k today. Even many entry level blue collar jobs have 401k plans.

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