security at the end of the work years

security at the end of the work years

fiction
Edward w Pritchard

401K's for the  masses

The first written records of pensions for workers come from ancient Baghdad where snake charmers working the "old rope trick hustle" in the souks employed 8 year old boys to climb a waxed rope 10 feet into the air as the snake charmer chanted and swayed coaxing a cobra out of a pot. The rope climbing boys were from a caste always named Teddy and as they got older because of weight gain or faulty trick ropes the boys would often fall from heights and end feeble in the head being unable to work later in adult vocations. As remedy and in fairness the snake charmer would then on the ground
beside the jar where customers placed money in appreciation of the snake charmers performance  place a second jar for the Teddy boys retirement which in time came to be known as 401K's.

Today in America most ordinary people have 401K and most government workers have fixed benefit pensions. The 401K's are managed by the recipient and rise and fall with the vulgarities of the marketplace, fate and fortune. Government pensions accrue at about 12% guaranteed over the life of the worker vesting in full at retirement about age 50.