To the editor: Columnist Michael Hiltzik laments that lower-income employees don’t get as massive a tax profit from 401(okay) accounts (“Ordinary Americans struggle to fund their 401(k) plans while plutocrats fill theirs with tax-free millions,” Aug. 14). That’s hardly an ideal injustice, it’s arithmetic. If you happen to pay a decrease marginal tax price, you get a smaller tax break.
Hiltzik is correct that 40% of People don’t have any retirement financial savings. The reply isn’t to penalize higher-income employees; it’s to increase entry to retirement accounts.
The Trump child 530A accounts begin each new child off with a $1,000 funding. With the magic of compounding, that $1,000 will grow to $6,000 by age 18.
The Trump IRA helps adults who fall by the cracks: part-time employees, the self-employed and staff of small companies missing conventional 401(okay)s. Decrease-income employees can obtain $1,000 a yr in federal matching contributions.
This needs to be our focus: increasing the variety of folks constructing wealth somewhat than begrudging the folks already doing it.
Brian Suckow, Palo Alto
