Bill Styring is a smart guy, but in the last column where he says “the employee invests” his or her defined-contribution account funds, he ignores the market [Bohanon & Styring: Government pension plans don’t always pay up, Oct. 3].
Employers generally pick a handful of funds and tell the employee to invest in that group and that alone. Employees do not have the smorgasbord of all NYSE and Nasdaq securities to pick from. Instead, they have a limited number of choices, most of which were “hammered” badly during the 2008-2009 financial meltdown.
But the options are still the two choices listed: trust the markets or trust the transient occupants of political offices. Since retirees are a well-known and active voting bloc, a good argument can be made for trusting the elected officials.
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Jerry Williams
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