the all american rejects tour 2022

The All-American Rejects Announce First Headlining Tour In Nearly Ten Years

Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour With New Found Glory

Motion city soundtrack, the starting line, the get up kids to support.

The All-American Rejects are excited to announce their highly anticipated return to the stage with the Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour , their first headlining tour in nearly a decade. Produced by Live Nation, the 27-city tour kicks off on August 11 at MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre in Tampa , FL making stops across the U.S. in Boston, MA , Nashville, TN , Los Angeles, CA , and more before wrapping up in Oklahoma City, OK at Zoo Amphitheatre on October 14 .

Speaking on their upcoming dates, the band said: “ We’ve been trying to get out on the road in a proper way for the last few years. We finally realized after playing When We Were Young that the world was ready to pull out of their “guilty pleasure chest” and celebrate the soundtrack of their youth. When New Found Glory, The Starting Line, Motion City Soundtrack and The Get Up Kids signed on, the feeling was ‘This is a celebration of summers gone by.’ It’s time to embrace the cumulative joy of growing up. First we got you to “Swing Swing,” then we became your “Dirty Little Secret,” and you thought “It Would End Tonight” so we could “Move Along,” then we “Gave You Hell” for denying the fact that we’re the band you listened to your entire lives, whether you liked it or not.”

TICKETS : Tickets will be available starting with a Citi presale (details below) beginning Tuesday , April 4 . Additional pre-sales will run throughout the week. The general on-sale will start Friday , April 7 at 10AM Local Time on LiveNation.com . 

CITI PRESALE : Citi is the official card of the Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour. Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday , April 4 at 10 AM local time until Thursday , April 6 at 10 PM local time through the Citi Entertainment program. For complete presale details visit www.citientertainment.com . 

The All-American Rejects Tour Dates :

Fri Jun 16 – Kansas City, KS – Phase Fest

Fri Aug 11 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre*

Sat Aug 12 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheater^

Mon Aug 14 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheatre*

Tue Aug 15 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center^

Thu Aug 17 – Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at the Mann^

Fri Aug 18 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway*

Sat Aug 19 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater*

Mon Aug 21 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater*

Tue Aug 22 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre @ Freedom Hill*

Thu Aug 24 – Indianapolis, IN – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park*

Fri Aug 25 – Nashville, TN – Nashville Municipal Auditorium*

Sun Aug 27 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory*

Fri Sep 22 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium!

Sat Sep 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Great Saltair Amphitheater!

Mon Sep 25 – Spokane, WA – Northern Quest Amphitheater!

Tue Sep 26 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre!

Wed Sep 27 – Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater!

Fri Sep 29 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre!

Sat Sep 30 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre!

Mon Oct 02 – Bakersfield, CA – Mechanics Bank Theater!

Tue Oct 03 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater!

Fri Oct 06 – San Diego, CA – Gallagher Square at Petco Park!

Sat Oct 07 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre!

Sun Oct 08 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater!

Tue Oct 10 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP!#

Thu Oct 12 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall!

Sat Oct 14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre!

* = With Support From New Found Glory, The Starting Line, The Get Up Kids

^ = With Support From New Found Glory, The Get Up Kids

! = With Support From New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, The Get Up Kids

# On Sale Fri, April 14th, Citi Presale Tuesday April 11

(Photo Credit: Paul Harries | Download hi-res HERE )

Vocalist/bassist Tyson Ritter and guitarist Nick Wheeler were best friends in high school in Stillwater, Oklahoma, when they founded The All-American Rejects in 1999. And while their emo-pop band has traveled far and wide and sold millions of albums in the years since, their music retains an irrepressible energy and infectious scrappiness, two qualities that seem quintessentially teenaged in the best sense. They’ve also always understood the lasting value of big sticky melodies, a lesson they absorbed from a wide range of early influences that included Bon Jovi and Def Leppard, as well as emo forebears such as Weezer and Jimmy Eat World. Already fully realized on their 2002 indie hit “Swing, Swing,” The All-American Rejects’ catchy mix of arena rock, power pop, and emo soon landed them a deal with DreamWorks. Later hits like 2005’s “Dirty Little Secret” and 2008’s “Gives You Hell”—which hit No. 1 on the iTunes chart—confirmed the wide appeal of Ritter and Wheeler’s sometimes snarky and always punchy songwriting.

Connect with The All-American Rejects :

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About Live Nation Entertainment :

Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com .

Live Nation Concerts :

Monique Sowinski | [email protected]

Valeska Thomas | [email protected]  

For media availability and more information on The All-American Rejects, please contact :

Shane Greenberg | The Syndicate | [email protected] | 201.864.0900 ext. 322

Sara Fleischer | The Syndicate | [email protected] | 201.864.0900 ext. 331

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The All-American Rejects are an American rock band formed in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1999 and currently consists of Tyson Ritter, Nick Wheeler, Mike Kennerty and Chris Gaylor.

The first piece of music ever recorded and released by The All-American Rejects was known as the blue album, it was a rough demo selection of twelve songs, some of which would be included Same Girl, New Songs EP. The young band gained attention from this collection and after backing from producer Tim O'Heir they released their self-titled album in 2003.

The first album was a commercial success, peaking at #25 on the US Billboard charts and dented the UK charts too. It featured the band's first small hit 'Swing, Swing' which was a bigger success in Britain. The follow-up album 'Move Along' remains their peak US chart position, placing at #6 upon its release in July 2005. It holds a double platinum selling certificate in the States thanks to the help of three hit singles, 'Move Along' 'Dirty Little Secret' and 'It Ends Tonight'.

The third album 'When The World Comes Down' did not reach the top 10 on the US Billboard as its predecessor had yet it features the band's biggest international single 'Gives You Hell'. The track reached #5 on the US chart and #18 in the UK as well as appearing on various charts around the world, it was the fifth most downloaded song of 2009. 'Kids In The Street' was released in 2012 and became the band's first appearance on the UK album charts top 40.

Live reviews

Almost psychotic in his intense delivery Tyson, the lead for The All American Rejects begins his set acapella. He rolls on the ground writhing with his own seeming insanity before springing to his feet as the rest of the band begins playing. Waiting until the crowd is involved he begins stopping at almost random places in the song and allowing the audience to finish his phrases.

Tyson struts across the stage seemingly boneless and possessed by the music. He never misses a beat and seems to project an almost insane persona. Wide eyes he blows kisses to the crowd and grins like a Cheshire cat reveling in the screams of his fans. For his next song he is less animated but his eyes express so much more emotion. He stares into the audience and though he appears unseeing his eyes bore into my chest.

Mike and Chris have similar stares and their faces are screwed up with effort. It seems as if they are pushing the music from their very being rather than playing instruments. It is hard to tell where the musician begins and the instrument ends but in the moment I don't care for such details. Even when less animated Chris gestures almost frantically with his arms punctuating riffs, notes, and phrases and seemingly offering them to the audience. The experience is intense, emotional, and outside of the bounds of sanity. Limits mean nothing to this band and they are willing to rock you into oblivion with their passion.

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Continuing to ride the diminishing wave of 90's garage rock, Oklahoma group The All-American Rejects have been carving a career in this genre for over fifteen years. A successful one at that, the band has enjoyed commerciality in both the States and the UK and their angst pop/rock has an apparent almost universal appeal when viewing the broad range of patrons attending their tours.

There is an egotistical sashay to the way in which Tyson Ritter leads his musicians onto stage as they are showered in deafening cheers and applause. Determined to give the crowds what they have come for, they begin with a thumping 'Dirty Little Secret' which gets the whole room clapping overhead during its recognisable chorus. The pace does not drop throughout the night whether it be due to singalong modern classics, interactive instrumentals or impassioned stage speeches and interaction from Ritter. The band knows that garage is a genre fast disappearing from the mainstream charts yet stand firm to their beliefs and play the music both them and their fans adore. With tracks such as 'Move Along' and 'Gives You Hell' the appeal is only growing.

I drove 251 miles to see the Rejects, and it was worth every mile, every minute. I have loved AAR for so long...since the beginning, and this was a dream come true for me!

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The All-American Rejects Set First Headlining Tour in 10 Years for This Summer

By Ellise Shafer

Ellise Shafer

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It’s no longer a dirty little secret: The All-American Rejects are returning to touring this summer after a 10-year hiatus.

The rock band, best known for early-aughts hits like “Gives You Hell” and “Move Along,” is embarking on the 27-date Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour, kicking off on Aug. 11 in Tampa, Fla. Produced by Live Nation, the tour features New Found Glory as its main openers, with Motion City Soundtrack, the Starting Line and the Get Up Kids also playing select dates.

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See all the tour dates below.

June 16 – Kansas City, KS – Phase Fest

Aug. 11 – Tampa, FL – MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre*

Aug. 12 – Alpharetta, GA – Ameris Bank Amphitheater^

Aug. 14 – Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheatre*

Aug. 15 – Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center^

Aug. 17 – Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at the Mann^

Aug. 18 – Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway*

Aug. 19 – Bridgeport, CT – Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater*

Aug. 21 – Darien Center, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater*

Aug. 22 – Sterling Heights, MI – Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre @ Freedom Hill*

Aug. 24 – Indianapolis, IN – TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park*

Aug. 27 – Minneapolis, MN – The Armory*

Sept. 22 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium!

Sept. 23 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Great Saltair Amphitheater!

Sept. 25 – Spokane, WA – Northern Quest Amphitheater!

Sept. 26 – Auburn, WA – White River Amphitheatre!

Sept. 27 – Ridgefield, WA – RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater!

Sept. 29 – Mountain View, CA – Shoreline Amphitheatre!

Sept. 30 – Wheatland, CA – Toyota Amphitheatre!

Oct. 2 – Bakersfield, CA – Mechanics Bank Theater!

Oct. 3 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater!

Oct. 6 – San Diego, CA – Gallagher Square at Petco Park!

Oct. 7 – Phoenix, AZ – Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre!

Oct. 8 – Albuquerque, NM – Isleta Amphitheater!

Oct. 10 – Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP!#

Oct. 12 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall!

Oct. 14 – Oklahoma City, OK – Zoo Amphitheatre!

* = With Support From New Found Glory, the Starting Line, the Get Up Kids

^ = With Support From New Found Glory, the Get Up Kids

! = With Support From New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, the Get Up Kids

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• Consequence

The All-American Rejects Announce First Headlining Tour in a Decade

The "Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour" marks the band's first headlining tour in a decade and features rotating support from The Get Up Kids, New Found Glory, and more

The All-American Rejects have unveiled a 2023 trek across the US starting this summer, aptly titled the “Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour.” The 27-date outing marks the band’s first solo headlining tour in a decade as well as their first extended road trip since their 2017 co-billed excursion with Dashboard Confessional.

Featuring support on select dates from fellow pop punk faithfuls The Get Up Kids , New Found Glory , Motion City Soundtrack , and The Starting Line , the “Wet Hot All-American Summer Tour” launches in Tampa on August 11th, then heads into early Fall with stops to Boston, Nashville, Los Angeles, and more. The jaunt concludes in Oklahoma City on October 14th.

Tickets are available via StubHub , where orders are 100% guaranteed through StubHub’s FanProtect program. StubHub is a secondary market ticketing platform, and prices may be higher or lower than face value, depending on demand.

“We’ve been trying to get out on the road in a proper way for the last few years,” the band shared in a statement. They credited their 2022 appearance at the Las Vegas pop punk summit When We Were Young with renewing interest in a full return to the stage, saying, “The world was ready to pull out of their ‘guilty pleasure chest’ and celebrate the soundtrack of their youth.” Acknowledging their supporting roster, who are all members of our list of the 100 Best Pop Punk Bands , AAR called it “a celebration of summers gone by.'”

The All-American Rejects 2023 Tour Dates

06/16 – Kansas City, KS @ Phase Fest 08/11 – Tampa, FL @ MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre * 08/12 – Alpharetta, GA @ Ameris Bank Amphitheater ^ 08/14 – Raleigh, NC @ Red Hat Amphitheatre * 08/15 – Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center ^ 08/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Skyline Stage at the Mann ^ 08/18 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall at Fenway * 08/19 – Bridgeport, CT @ Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater * 08/21 – Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater * 08/22 – Sterling Heights, MI @ Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre at Freedom Hill * 08/24 – Indianapolis, IN @ TCU Amphitheater at White River State Park * 08/25 – Nashville, TN @ Nashville Municipal Auditorium * 08/27 – Minneapolis, MN @ The Armory * 09/22 – Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium ! 09/23 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Great Saltair Amphitheater ! 09/25 – Spokane, WA @ Northern Quest Amphitheater ! 09/26 – Auburn, WA @ White River Amphitheatre ! 09/27 – Ridgefield, WA @ RV Inn Style Resorts Amphitheater ! 09/29 – Mountain View, CA @ Shoreline Amphitheatre ! 09/30 – Wheatland, CA @ Toyota Amphitheatre ! 10/02 – Bakersfield, CA @ Mechanics Bank Theater ! 10/03 – Los Angeles, CA @ YouTube Theater ! 10/06 – San Diego, CA @ Gallagher Square at Petco Park ! 10/07 – Phoenix, AZ @ Talking Stick Resort Amphitheatre ! 10/08 – Albuquerque, NM @ Isleta Amphitheater ! 10/10 – Rogers, AR @ Walmart AMP ! 10/12 – Houston, TX @ 713 Music Hall ! 10/14 – Oklahoma City, OK @ Zoo Amphitheatre !

* = w/ New Found Glory, The Starting Line, and The Get Up Kids ^ = w/ New Found Glory and The Get Up Kids ! = w/ New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, and The Get Up Kids

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Nelly Korda shoots 69 in Founders, leaving her 6 shots back in bid for 6th LPGA Tour win in a row

Nelly Korda is going to have some work to do if she wants to win a record sixth straight LPGA tournament, especially the way Rose Zhang is playing

CLIFTON, N.J. -- Nelly Korda is going to have some work to do to win a record sixth straight LPGA Tour title, especially the way Rose Zhang is playing.

Korda shot a relatively mistake-free 3-under 69 early in the first round of the Cognizant Founders Cup on Thursday and then could only watch as the 20-year-old Zhang tied tghe tournament record with a 63 in the afternoon to take the lead.

In her winning streak, Korda has never trailed by more than eight strokes after the opening round. The 25-year-old was six back in this one with a slew of players ahead of her heading into the second round at the Upper Montclair Country Club.

Rain was in the forecast the next two days.

“There is still three more days,” said Korda, who had four birdies and a bogey. “You still have a lot of things that you — I know the weather is not supposed to be great and there is just different factors that go into the rest of the tournament. So it’s definitely nice to get a good round in. You know, still a long, long ways away from Sunday.”

Zhang also has to be a concern after needing only 25 putts in posting the best professional round of her career. The two-time NCAA champion from Stanford won New Jersey in her professional debut at the Mizuho Americas Open about a year ago. She has not won since but she played like a champion Thursday, a bogey-free round that included nine birdies.

Zhang had a two-shot lead over Madelene Sagstrom of Sweden, who set the tournament record in 2022. Leona Maguire of Ireland, Stephanie Kyriacou of Australia and Narin An of South Korea were three shots back and one ahead of Lindsey Weaver-Wright and Mel Reid of England.

“It was almost just auto-command kind of golf,” said Zhang, whose has missed two cuts in six starts this year. "I feel like in the last couple weeks it’s been a little bit difficult. I’ve been struggling a little bit with the golf swing and gaining confidence in my preparation.

“But going into this week I kind of let it all go; let the expectations go a little bit more,” she added. “I was able to free myself up a little bit, which was really nice to see some shots go in, especially on the greens. I was able to get some putting momentum in, so it was really nice.”

Korda, who fulfilled a childhood dream by walking on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, played with defending champion Jin Young Ko (72) and 2022 winner Minjee Lee (70). They were followed by about 100 fans, who politely cheered the players. Among the fans were five women wearing black T-shirts with “Everyone Watches Nelly Korda” on the front.

Sagstrom, who finished third two years ago, had six birdies, an eagle and a bogey playing in the first threesome off the back nine. She finished 10th last year.

“This golf course first of all suits my eye really well,” Sagstrom said. “I’ve been playing around with the ball flight a little bit. My coach, Hans (Larsson), is in town. This is the third year he’s here, too. We love the golf course.”

Hannah Green, who has won twice on tour this year, including the JM Eagle Los Angeles Championship in the last tour event, also was at 69 along with Lydia Ko, who needs one more win to make the LPGA Hall of Fame.

AP golf: https://apnews.com/hub/golf

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Kristi Noem rejects ‘liberal plant’ claim on dog-killing tale: ‘Buck stops with me’

Sympathetic interviewer suggests rogue editor was responsible for career-torpedoing story in new book

Asked if a story about killing a dog and a goat as well as a false claim to have met Kim Jong-un could have been put in her book by an editor acting as “a liberal plant”, the South Dakota governor and Republican vice-presidential hopeful Kristi Noem seemed to realise such a claim would be too outlandish even for her.

“The buck always stops with me,” Noem told Newsmax. “I take my own full responsibility. I wrote this book.”

No Going Back was published in the US on Tuesday. But for more than a week it has been at the centre of a political firestorm fueled by a Guardian report of its startling story of how Noem says she shot dead Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer she deemed “untrainable”, and an unnamed goat Noem said menaced her children.

Noem has defended the story as an example of how she is willing to do unpleasant things in life and politics.

But the resulting revulsion has seemingly ended any hope of Noem being named running mate to Donald Trump, the former president and presumptive Republican nominee in November.

Noem’s claim to have met Kim, the North Korean dictator, unravelled amid reporting by the Dakota Scout . Noem’s publisher, Center Street, said it would remove the passage from future editions.

Amid a media tour in which Noem was challenged on CBS about an apparent threat to kill Joe Biden’s dog , the governor sought friendlier turf at Newsmax. Eric Bolling, a former Fox News host, duly attempted to give her a way to climb off her hurtling train of bad PR.

Bolling said : “You don’t write the whole book at once, you write a chapter or two, you send it to the editors and they edit. They read it, they add, they subtract.

“And here’s my question: the editor, was she possibly a plant? A liberal plant? Because I’m not sure either one of these stories, this dog story, the North Korea story, seems like the Kristi Noem I know.”

Noem said: “The buck always stops with me. I take my own full responsibility. I wrote this book and then I take the responsibility for what’s in it.”

But revelations continue. Axios reported that Noem had angled to become president of the National Rifle Association. Worse for Noem, though, was a report in which Politico said she tried to include the story of Cricket’s trip to the gravel pit in Not My First Rodeo, a book published in 2022.

Citing two sources, the site said Noem “wanted the story in because it showed a decisive person who was unwilling to be bound by namby-pamby niceties”.

But “agents, editors, publicists at Hachette … and a ghostwriter” reportedly “saw it as a bad-taste anecdote that would hurt her brand” and the tale was cut.

Regarding the claim to have met Kim, Noem’s spokesperson has said it was the result of a mistaken melding of world leaders’ names.

On the page, Noem calls Kim a “little tyrant”, of a kind she claims to have been used to staring down, having “been a children’s pastor”. Politico pointed to the real Kim’s physical heft, as “the 300lb despot with the gravity-defying haircut”.

On Tuesday, Noem was back on Newsmax . Things did not go well.

“The book’s called No Going Back,” her host, Rob Finnerty, said, adding part of its subtitle, “The Truth on What’s Wrong With Politics”.

“And I think part of … what’s wrong with politics today is that politicians aren’t honest with the American people. So, Governor, if you asked me a month ago who’s at the top of the list to run with Donald Trump, I would have said your name. If he asked me that same question this morning, I don’t even think you’re on the list.”

Noem said: “Really?”

Finnerty said: “Yes, really … and it’s because of things that have come out in this book, like your claims that you met Kim Jong-un.”

Noem, who complained about being interrupted on CBS, interrupted.

“I’ve been in the DMZ,” she said, referring to the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

Finnerty pressed on: “So here’s the quote from the book. You say, ‘I remember when I met North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, I’m sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down little tyrants.’

“Governor, that never happened.”

Noem said: “What I have said in the book is that when I became aware of the content that we had it changed and that’s the way that it is. I’m not going to talk about my conversations with world leaders.”

She also claimed “a typical politician wouldn’t be [as] honest” as she had been about her error.

Finnerty said: “Governor, I’m not asking you about the details of this alleged meeting. I’m asking if the meeting actually happened. I don’t think it did. I think if it did, you’d be able to confirm for me that yes, it did.”

Noem said: “I’m not going to talk about this.”

Finnerty said: “You’re gonna continue to get asked this question.”

Noem said, “I don’t think so”, then pivoted to attacking Biden over his own questionable claims .

Finnerty said, “Governor, that’s a very good point. And I’m not deliberately trying to be adversarial … Donald Trump winning is very important. And I think that whoever he chooses to be his running mate, and again, I think at one point you were at the top of that list, like, you’re gonna get questions a lot more difficult than that.”

Things went no better on Fox Business.

Asked by Stuart Varney if she thought she was “in line” to be Trump’s running mate, Noem said she spoke to the former president “all the time”. Asked repeatedly if “the dog story” was discussed, she said: “Enough, Stuart. This interview is ridiculous which you are doing right now, so you need to stop.”

Varney stopped, saying Noem was out of time.

“Oh, well, of course we are,” Noem said.

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National Politics | Lawyers’ coalition provides new messengers…

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National politics | lawyers’ coalition provides new messengers for black voter engagement, their goal is to restore faith in democracy by better understanding their experiences with voter registration and ballot-box access..

WASHINGTON (AP) — Young Black lawyers and law students are taking on a new role ahead of the general election: Meeting with Black voters in battleground states to increase turnout and serve as watchdogs against voter disenfranchisement.

The Young Black Lawyers’ Organizing Coalition has recruited lawyers and law students and is sending them to Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas to meet with Black voters, aiming to better understand the barriers that the historically disadvantaged voting bloc faces when registering to vote and accessing the ballot.

The recruits are leading educational focus groups with an ambitious goal: restoring fatigued Black voters’ faith in American democracy.

“I think what makes us unique is that we’re new messengers,” said Abdul Dosunmu, a civil rights lawyer who founded YBLOC. “We have never thought about the Black lawyer as someone who is uniquely empowered to be messengers for civic empowerment.”

Dosunmu, who shared the coalition’s plans exclusively with The Associated Press, said recruits will combat apathy among Black voters by listening, rather than telling them why their participation is crucial. The focus groups will inform “a blueprint for how to make democracy work for our communities,” he said.

According to a Pew Research Center report , in 2023, just 21% of Black adults said they trust the federal government to do the right thing at least most of the time. That’s up from a low of 9% during the Trump administration. For white adults, the numbers were reversed: 26% of white adults expressed such trust in 2020, dropping to 13% during the Biden administration.

The first stop on the four-state focus group tour was Michigan in February. This month, YBLOC plans to stop in Texas and then North Carolina. Venues for the focus groups have included barbershops, churches and union halls.

Alyssa Whitaker, a third-year student at Howard University School of Law, said she got involved because she is dissatisfied with the relationship Black communities have with their democracy.

“Attorneys, we know the law,” Whitaker said. “We’ve been studying this stuff and we’re deep in the weeds. So, having that type of knowledge and expertise, I do believe there is some level of a responsibility to get involved.”

In Detroit, Grand Rapids and Pontiac, Michigan, the recruits heard about a wide variety of challenges and grievances. Black voters said they don’t feel heard or validated and are exasperated over the lack of options on the ballot.

Despite their fatigue, the voters said they remain invested in the political process.

“It was great to see that, even if people were a bit more pessimistic in their views, people were very engaged and very knowledgeable about what they were voting for,” said another recruit, Awa Nyambi, a third-year student at Howard University School of Law.

It’s a shame that ever since Black people were guaranteed the right to vote, they’ve had to pick “the lesser of two evils” on their ballots, said Tameka Ramsey, interim executive director of the Michigan Coalition on Black Civic Participation.

“But that’s so old,” said Ramsey, whose group was inspired by the February event and has begun holding its own listening sessions.

These young lawyers are proving the importance of actually listening to varying opinions in the Black community, said Felicia Davis, founder of the HBCU Green Fund, a non-profit organization aimed at driving social justice and supporting sustainable infrastructure for historically Black colleges and universities.

YBLOC is “teaching and reawakening the elements of organizing 101,” she said.

The experience also is informing how the lawyers navigate their careers, said Tyra Beck, a second-year student at The New York University School of Law.

“It’s personal to me because I’m currently in a constitutional law class,” Beck said.

Kahaari Kenyatta, a first-year student also at The New York University School of Law, said the experience has reminded him why he got into law.

“You care about this democracy and civil engagement,” Kenyatta said. “I’m excited to work with YBLOC again, whatever that looks like.”

The Associated Press’ coverage of race and voting receives support from the Jonathan Logan Family Foundation. See more about AP’s democracy initiative here . The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Wells Fargo Championship: SB Nation picks next PGA Tour Signature Event winner

The PGA Tour returns to Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the sixth Signature Event of the 2024 season.

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Quail Hollow Club, the host of this week’s Wells Fargo Championship , is one of the more challenging courses the PGA Tour visits each year. It requires precision from tee to green.

Funny enough, this venue will host the PGA Championship again next year, eight years after Justin Thomas won his first major championship at Quail Hollow in 2017. The course also hosted the 2022 Presidents Cup, in which the Americans defeated the Internationals, 17.5 to 12.5.

Big hitters, who can also find plenty of greens, tend to do well on this golf course, but accuracy is also a must, as Shane Lowry explained in his pre-tournament press conference.

With this intel in mind, SB Nation’s Playing Through staff has submitted their picks for the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship:

Kendall Capps - Senior Editor

Earlier this year, we saw Scottie Scheffler become the first back-to-back winner at The Players.

We will see more history this weekend as Wyndham Clark will become the first player to win the Wells Fargo in consecutive years.

He set the course record last year, and it is no wonder why. Clark’s game fits this course beautifully. The reigning U.S. Open champion is one of the longest hitters on tour, and with Quail Hollow listed beyond 7,500 yards, that is essential.

But even more importantly, you need to be precise both off the tee and on approach. Clark ranks in the top 15 on tour in strokes gained: off the tee, on approach, and even putting. We have all seen Clark catch fire with the flat stick numerous times this year, with no better example than what he did at Pebble Beach .

One year ago, Clark made a name for himself. He has since proven that he is no one-hit-wonder and will cap off one of the most underrated 12 months of golf in recent memory this week.

DraftKings Odds to Win: +1400

Jack milko - staff writer.

Of those players without a PGA Tour victory in 2024, nobody has played better than Xander Schauffele , who ranks third in total strokes gained this season.

I believe he finally breaks into the winner’s circle this week at Quail Hollow, where he finished in solo second—four strokes behind Wyndham Clark —at this event a year ago. Schauffele also tied for 14th in 2021.

The former San Diego State Aztec ranks 10th in strokes gained off the tee and is 27th in strokes gained approaching the green—both solid attributes on this challenging golf course.

The question is whether he can make some putts, as he routinely puts himself in the best positions. He tied for second at The Players and finished solo eighth at The Masters , but if he could have holed a few more on the greens, those solid performances may have turned into memorable wins.

Alas, I am confident Schauffele will do just that this week on these re-surfaced and smoothened putting surfaces. He will gallop into Kentucky full of confidence for next week’s PGA Championship, fresh off his eighth career PGA Tour victory.

DraftKings Odds to Win: +1000

Savannah richardson - staff writer.

Early Wednesday, Rory McIlroy discussed how this tournament is one of his favorite stops on the PGA Tour, and rightfully so. The Northern Irishman has triumphed at Quail Hollow three times before, with his most recent victory coming in 2021.

Knowing how much he loves this golf course and how big hitters tend to play well here, I believe McIlroy will win the Wells Fargo Championship for a fourth time.

His game is rounding into form, as evidenced by his dramatic victory at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans alongside Shane Lowry.

McIlroy has demonstrated accuracy off the tee this season, too, finding the short grass 71.16% of the time—good for 17th on the PGA Tour. That will surely help him at this Signature Event , which puts a premium on precision.

DraftKings Odds to Win: +700

For all other sports betting content, check out SB Nation’s DraftKings site .

Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.

Next Up In Golf

• Rose Zhang does best Nelly Korda impression, dominates Cognizant Founders Cup
• Xander Schauffele near albatross, Drop Gate situation vaults him to Wells Fargo lead
• Blades Brown, 16, makes PGA Tour debut in style at Myrtle Beach Classic
• Nelly Korda historic chase at Cognizant Founders Cup off to strong start
• Hideki Matsuyama has back injury setback; withdraws from Wells Fargo Championship
• PGA Tour Commish hides behind red tape amid Rory McIlroy policy board recusal

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Was the 401(k) a Mistake?

How an obscure, 45-year-old tax change transformed retirement and left so many Americans out in the cold.

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By Michael Steinberger

Michael Steinberger is a contributing writer for the magazine. He writes periodically about the economy and the markets.

• May 8, 2024

Jen Forbus turned 50 this year. She is in good health and says her life has only gotten better as she has grown older. Forbus resides in Lorain, Ohio, not far from Cleveland; she is single and has no children, but her parents and sisters are nearby. She works, remotely, as an editorial supervisor for an educational publishing company, a job that she loves. She is on track to pay off her mortgage in the next 10 years, and having recently made her last car payment, she is otherwise debt-free. By almost any measure, Forbus is middle class.

Listen to this article, read by Malcolm Hillgartner

Still, she worries about her future. Forbus would like to stop working when she is 65. She has no big retirement dreams — she is not planning to move to Florida or to take extravagant vacations. She hopes to spend her later years enjoying family and friends and pursuing different hobbies. But she knows that she hasn’t set aside enough money to ensure that she can realize even this modest ambition.

A former high school teacher, Forbus says she has around $200,000 in total savings. She earns a high five-figure salary and contributes 9 percent of it to the 401(k) plan that she has through her employer. The company also makes a matching contribution that is equivalent to 5 percent of her salary. A widely accepted rule of thumb among personal-finance experts is that your retirement income needs to be close to 80 percent of what you earned before retiring if you hope to maintain your lifestyle. Forbus figures that she can retire comfortably on around $1 million, although if her house is paid off, she might be able to get by with a bit less. She is not factoring Social Security benefits into her calculations. “I feel like it’s too uncertain and not something I can depend on,” she says.

But even if the stock market delivers blockbuster returns over the next 15 years, her goal is going to be difficult to reach — and this assumes that she doesn’t have a catastrophic setback, like losing her job or suffering a debilitating illness.

She also knows that markets don’t always go up. During the 2008 global financial crisis, her 401(k) lost a third of its value, which was a scarring experience. From the extensive research that she has done, Forbus has become a fairly savvy investor; she’s familiar with all of the major funds and has 60 percent of her money in stocks and the rest in fixed income, which is generally the recommended ratio for people who are some years away from retiring. Still, Forbus would prefer that her retirement prospects weren’t so dependent on her own investing acumen. “It makes me very nervous,” she concedes. She and her friends speak with envy of the pensions that their parents and grandparents had. “I wish that were an option for us,” she says.

The sentiment is understandable. With pensions, otherwise known as defined-benefit plans, your employer invests on your behalf, and you are promised a fixed monthly income upon retirement. With 401(k)s, which are named after a section of the tax code, you choose from investment options that your company gives you, and there is no guarantee of what you will get back, only limits on what you can put in. This is why they are known as defined-contribution plans. Pensions still exist but mainly for unionized jobs. In the private sector, they have largely been replaced by 401(k)s, which came along in the early 1980s. Generally, contributions to 401(k)s are pretax dollars — you pay income tax when you withdraw the money — and these savings vehicles have been a bonanza for a lot of Americans.

Not all companies offer 401(k)s, however, and millions of private-sector employees lack access to workplace retirement plans. Availability is just one problem; contributing is another. Many people who have 401(k)s put little if any money into their accounts. With Americans now aging out of the work force in record numbers — according to the Alliance for Lifetime Income, a nonprofit founded by a group of financial-services companies, 4.1 million people will turn 65 this year, part of what the AARP and others have called the “silver tsunami” — the holes in the retirement system are becoming starkly apparent. U.S. Census Bureau data indicates that in 2017 49 percent of Americans ages 55 to 66 had “no personal retirement savings.”

The savings shortfall is no surprise to Teresa Ghilarducci, an economist at the New School in New York. She has long predicted that the shift to 401(k)s would leave vast numbers of Americans without enough money to retire on, reducing many of them to poverty or forcing them to continue working into their late 60s and beyond. That so many people still do not have 401(k)s or find themselves, like Jen Forbus, in such tenuous circumstances when they do, is proof that what she refers to as this “40-year experiment with do-it-yourself pensions” has been “an utter failure.”

It certainly appears to be failing a large segment of the working population, and while Ghilarducci has been making that case for years, more and more people are now coming around to her view. Her latest book, “Work, Retire, Repeat: The Uncertainty of Retirement in the New Economy,” which was published in March, is drawing a lot of attention: She has been interviewed on NPR and C-SPAN and has testified on Capitol Hill.

It is no longer just fellow progressives who are receptive to her message. Ghilarducci used to be an object of scorn on the right, once drawing the megaphonic wrath of Rush Limbaugh. Today, though, even some conservatives admit that her assessment of the retirement system is basically correct. Indeed, Kevin Hassett, who was a senior economic adviser to President Trump, teamed up with Ghilarducci not long ago to devise a plan that would help low- and middle-income Americans save more for retirement. Their proposal is the basis for legislation currently before Congress.

And Ghilarducci recently found her critique being echoed by one of the most powerful figures on Wall Street. In his annual letter to investors, Larry Fink , the chairman and chief executive of BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset-management companies, wrote that the United States was facing a retirement crisis due in no small part to self-directed retirement financing. Fink said that for most Americans, replacing defined-benefit plans with defined-contribution plans had been “a shift from financial certainty to financial uncertainty” and suggested that it was time to abandon the “you’re on your own” approach.

While that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon, it seems fair to ask whether the country as a whole has been well served by the 401(k) revolution. The main beneficiaries have been higher-income workers; instead of making an economically secure retirement possible for more people, 401(k)s have arguably become another driver of the inequality that is a defining feature of American life.

When it comes to generating wealth, 401(k)s have been an extraordinary success. The Investment Company Institute, a financial-industry trade group, calculates that the roughly 700,000 401(k) plans now in existence hold more than $7 trillion in assets. But the gains have gone primarily to those who were already at or near the top. According to the Federal Reserve, the value of the median retirement-saving account for households in the 90th to 100th income percentile has more than quintupled during the last 30 years and is currently more than $500,000. In one sense, it is not surprising that the affluent have profited to this degree from 401(k)s: The more money you can invest, the more money you stand to make.

In 2024, annual pretax contributions for employees are capped at $23,000, but with an employer match and possibly also an after-tax contribution (which is permitted under some plans), the maximum can reach $69,000. Workers 50 and over are also allowed to kick in an additional $7,500, potentially pushing the total to $76,500. Needless to say, only a sliver of the U.S. work force can contribute anything like that to their 401(k)s.

The withdrawal rules have evolved in a way that also favors high earners. You are generally not supposed to begin taking money from a 401(k) before you are 59½; doing so could incur a 10 percent penalty (on top of the income-tax hit). What’s more, you can now put off withdrawing money until age 73; previously, you had to begin drawing down 401(k)s by 70½. Those extra years are an added tax benefit for retirees who are in no rush to tap their 401(k)s.

People in lower-income brackets may have also made money from 401(k)s but hardly enough to retire on with Social Security. In 2022, the median retirement account for households in the 20th through 39th percentile held just $20,000. For this segment of the working population, 401(k)s sometimes end up serving a very different purpose. They become a source of emergency funds, not retirement income. But then, for many of these people, retirement seems like an impossibility.

Laura Gendreau directs a program called Stand by Me, a joint venture between the United Way of Delaware and the state government that provides free financial counseling. She says that when she asks clients if they are putting aside any money for retirement, they often look at her in disbelief: “They say, ‘How do you expect me to save for retirement when I’m living paycheck to paycheck?’” She and her colleagues try to identify expenditures that can be eliminated or reduced so that people can start saving at least a small portion of what they earn. But she says that some clients are having such a hard time just getting by that they can’t fathom being able to retire. Sometimes it does not even occur to them to look into whether their employers offer 401(k)s. “They have no idea,” Gendreau says.

Ghilarducci has been hearing this sort of thing for years. Her career in academia began around the time that 401(k)s first emerged, and from the start, she regarded these savings plans with skepticism. For one thing, she feared that a lot of people would never have access to them. But she also felt that 401(k)s were unsuitable for lower-income Americans, who often struggled to save money or who might not have either the time or the knowledge to manage their own investments. In her judgment, the offloading of retirement risk onto workers was worse than just an economic misstep — it represented a betrayal of the social contract.

Ghilarducci, who is 66, has the unusual distinction of being a high school dropout with a Ph.D. in economics. She also has firsthand experience of economic hardship, and her working-class roots have shaped her worldview. She was raised by a single mother in Roseville, Calif., and money was always tight. Despite a turbulent home life, she excelled academically and was able to take advantage of a program that allowed California students with strong grades and test scores to attend schools within the California university system without charge.

After being accepted at the University of California, San Diego, she stopped going to high school — it bored her — and never graduated. A year later, she transferred to the University of California, Berkeley. Neither university knew that she had not completed high school. “They didn’t ask, and I didn’t tell,” she says with a laugh. She majored in economics at Berkeley and also obtained her doctorate there. She then taught at the University of Notre Dame for 25 years (she joined the faculty of the New School in 2008). During that time, she acquired a national reputation for her expertise on retirement.

In 2008, Ghilarducci proposed replacing 401(k)s with “guaranteed retirement accounts,” a program that would combine mandatory individual and employer contributions with tax credits and that would guarantee at least a 3 percent annual return, adjusted for inflation. Her plan drew the wrath of voices on the right — the conservative pundit James Pethokoukis called her “the most dangerous woman in America.”

But her timing proved to be apt: That year, the global financial crisis imperiled the retirement plans of millions of Americans. Ghilarducci suggested that if the government was going to bail out the banks, it also had an obligation to help people whose 401(k)s had tanked. Her idea inflamed the right: Rush Limbaugh attacked her during his daily radio show, which brought her a wave of hate mail.

Her hostility to 401(k)s is partly anchored in a belief that when it comes to retirement, the country was on a better path in the past. In the 1950s and 1960s, many Americans could count on pensions and Social Security to provide them with a decent retirement. It was a different era, of course — back then, men (and it was almost always men) often spent their entire careers with the same companies. And even at their peak, pensions were not available to everyone; only around half of all employees ever had one. Still, in Ghilarducci’s view, it was a time when the United States put more emphasis on the interests of working-class Americans, including ensuring that they could retire with some degree of economic security.

She portrays the move to defined contribution retirement plans as part of the sharp rightward turn that the United States took under President Ronald Reagan, when the notion of individual responsibility became economic dogma — what the Yale University political scientist Jacob Hacker has called “the great risk shift.” The downside of this shift was laid bare by the great recession. Many older Americans lost their savings and were forced to scavenge for work.

This was the subject of the journalist Jessica Bruder’s book “Nomadland,” for which Ghilarducci was interviewed and that was the basis for the Oscar-winning film of the same title. To Ghilarducci, the portraits in “Nomadland” — of lives upended, of the indignity of being old and having to scramble for food and shelter — presaged the insecure future that awaited millions of other older Americans. And Ghilarducci believes that with record numbers of people now reaching retirement age, that grim future is arriving.

Her new book makes a powerful case for why all working people deserve a comfortable, dignified retirement and why, for so many Americans, the current retirement system is incapable of providing that. Her nationwide book tour has had the feel of a victory lap, although the vindication she can plausibly claim is no cause for celebration. “It’s the pinnacle of my career because what I told people would happen is happening,” she says. “So it’s a big told-you-so, and that told-you-so is on the backs of around 40 million middle-class workers who will be poor or near-poor elders.”

Ghilarducci finds it outrageous that Americans who don’t have enough money set aside for retirement are now being told that the solution to their financial woes is to just keep working. Forcing senior citizens to stay on the job is cruel, she says, and especially so if it involves physically demanding labor. She has observed that older workers often have “a shame hunch” — their body language suggests embarrassment. They are spending their last years in quiet humiliation.

To Ghilarducci, all of this represents a retreat from the ideals that fueled America’s prosperity and made the United States a beacon of opportunity. As she writes in her book, “A signature achievement of the postwar period — the democratization of who has control over the pace and content of their time after a lifetime of work — is being reversed.”

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, many companies, in addition to providing their employees with pensions, offered tax-deferred profit-sharing programs, which were available mostly to executives. But there was a lot of murkiness surrounding these defined-contribution plans — and a lot of concern that the I.R.S. might eventually ban them. When Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1978, it included an addition to the Internal Revenue Code that was intended to provide greater clarity about how these plans were to be structured and who could participate. The provision, which took effect in 1980, was called Section 401(k). According to a 2014 Bloomberg article, the staff members who drafted it thought it was a minor regulatory tweak, of no particular consequence. One former senior congressional aide was quoted as saying it was “an insignificant provision in a very large bill. It took on a life of its own afterwards.”

That’s because Ted Benna saw something in that new section of the Internal Revenue Code that had eluded the people who wrote it. Benna, a retirement-benefits consultant, was in his suburban Philadelphia office on a Saturday afternoon in 1979, trying to figure out how to devise a deferred-compensation plan for one of his firm’s clients, a local bank. At the time, the top marginal tax rate was 70 percent, and the bank wanted to see if there was a way to award bonuses to its executives that could limit their tax bill.

As Benna read the provisions of section 401(k), a solution dawned on him: The language seemed to indicate that he could create a plan in which the bonuses were put in a tax-deferred retirement plan. There was a catch, though. Under the terms of 401(k), this could be done only if rank-and-file employees participated in the plan. Benna knew that getting them to agree to set aside some of their pay would not be easy, so he came up with a sweetener — he proposed that the bank would partly match the contributions of its employees.

The bank balked at Benna’s proposal; it was concerned that regulators would rule the scheme illegal. Benna’s own firm decided to implement the idea, however, and it proved wildly popular with the company’s 50 or so employees. Benna and his colleagues called the plan “cash-op,” but the name never caught on, and instead came to be known as the 401(k). The new savings vehicle eventually did run into government resistance, when the Reagan administration, concerned about the lost tax revenues, tried to eliminate 401(k)s in 1986 — this notwithstanding the fact that 401(k)s, with their promise of individual empowerment, seemed emblematic of the so-called Reagan Revolution. But by then it was too late. A number of companies were already offering 401(k)s to their employees, and the financial industry, eyeing a lucrative new revenue stream, threw its lobbying muscle behind these investment plans.

Benna is 82 now, and I recently met with him in York, Pa. (He was there visiting family; he lives near Williamsport, Pa.) He is still working. He told me that his religious faith had compelled him to put off his own retirement. “The Creator didn’t create us to spend 30 years doing nothing,” he said. A tall, unassuming man, Benna suggested that we meet at the Cracker Barrel in York. There, over iced tea and coffee, we talked about the trillion-dollar business that resulted from his close reading of section 401(k). Benna had been quoted in the past voicing some misgivings about these savings plans. He told the magazine Smart Money in 2011, for instance, that he had given rise to a “monster.”

But he explained to me that the remorse he expressed had nothing to do with 401(k)s themselves, which he said had helped convert millions of Americans from “spenders into savers.” Rather, what he regretted was the complexity of many plans — he thought a lot of employees were overwhelmed by all the investment options — and the fact that the financial-services industry profited from them to the degree that it did. Benna said that the advent of the 401(k) turned the mutual-fund industry into the colossus that it is today and that too many fund managers charged what he considers unjustifiably high fees. “Over the life of an investment, it is a real hit — it is gigantic,” he says.

Yet Benna rejects the idea that 401(k)s took the country in the wrong direction. He contends that traditional pensions were doomed with or without 401(k)s. He recalls visiting Bethlehem Steel in the 1980s to talk about 401(k)s. “I told them that they had to start helping their employees save for retirement, and their H.R. person said, ‘Our employees don’t need to do that because we take care of them for life.’ And what happened to that?” (Bethlehem Steel filed for bankruptcy in 2001, and the government had to fulfill its pension obligations.) Likewise, he doesn’t think it is true that 401(k)s have really only benefited the well-off. He mentioned his brother-in-law, who lived in York and worked as a supervisor at Caterpillar, the construction-equipment manufacturer. When Caterpillar announced in 1996 that it was relocating its York plant to Illinois, he chose to take early retirement rather than uproot his family. “He told me that was only possible because of his 401(k),” Benna said. But he conceded that too many people are being let down by the retirement system and that something needs to be done to help them save for their later years.

Benna is one of a number of experts who believe that mandates will ultimately be needed to improve retirement financing — that the voluntary approach, in which companies decide whether they want to sponsor 401(k)s and employees decide whether they wish to participate, is leaving too many gaps. He thinks all companies above a certain size should have to offer employees 401(k)s or alternative retirement-savings options. (Starting next year, employers that establish new 401(k) plans will be required to automatically enroll workers in those plans. There is still no obligation, however, to actually provide the plans themselves.)

Other countries go further. Australia’s Superannuation Guarantee requires companies to contribute the equivalent of 11 percent of an employee’s monthly pay to an investment account that is controlled by the worker, who can also put in additional money. The “Super,” as it is known, includes full-time and part-time workers and has proved to be enormously successful. With its relatively small population — just 27 million — Australia now has the world’s fourth-highest per capita contributions to a pension system, and almost 80 percent of its work force is covered. BlackRock’s Larry Fink says that “Australia’s experience with Supers could be a good model for American policymakers to study and build on.”

The desire to give less affluent Americans the chance to build a decent nest egg is one that is shared across ideological lines. That in itself is a big change from, say, the debate about health care reform, which bitterly divided liberals and conservatives. (It is worth recalling that the Affordable Care Act was enacted in 2010 without a single Republican vote.) In fact, concern about the retirement-savings shortfall has become a rare source of bipartisan cooperation in Washington, and it has also yielded some unlikely alliances.

A few years ago, Kevin Hassett, who was chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers for a portion of Donald Trump’s presidency, became familiar with Ghilarducci’s work and sent her, unsolicited, the draft of a paper he was writing about the retirement-savings gap. She replied enthusiastically, and he suggested that she write the paper with him. Their partnership eventually yielded a plan for helping lower- and middle-income Americans save for retirement.

The idea they hatched was to make the Thrift Savings Plan, a government-sponsored retirement program for federal employees and members of the uniformed services, open to all Americans. T.S.P., which in total assets is the largest defined-contribution program in the country, includes automatic enrollment and matching contributions from the government. A number of states now offer retirement-savings plans for people whose employers don’t provide 401(k)s, but none of these include matching contributions, which many experts believe are an important incentive for getting workers to set aside a portion of their own salaries.

Ghilarducci and Hassett think that only a federal program in which savings accounts of eligible workers are topped up with government money will significantly increase the participation and savings rates of low-income Americans. Their proposal is the basis for the Retirement Savings for Americans Act, a bill recently introduced by the U.S. senators John Hickenlooper and Thom Tillis and the U.S. representatives Terri Sewell and Lloyd Smucker. Two are Democrats; two are Republicans.

This past January, another bipartisan collaboration — between Alicia Munnell, who was an economist in the Clinton administration and who now serves as the director of Boston College’s Center for Retirement Research, and Andrew Biggs, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank — published a paper calling for a reduction or an end to the 401(k) tax benefit.

Their research showed that it had not led to more participation in the program nor had it significantly increased the amount that Americans in the aggregate were saving for retirement. It was mostly just a giveaway to upper-income investors and a costly one at that. They estimated that it deprived the Treasury of almost $200 billion in revenue annually. They proposed reducing or even ending the tax-deferred status of 401(k)s and using the added revenue to shore up Social Security.

When I spoke to Biggs, he emphasized that he was not against 401(k)s. On balance, he thinks that they have worked well, and he also says that some of the criticism aimed at them is no longer valid. For instance, the do-it-yourself aspect is overstated: Most plans, for instance, now offer target-date funds, which automatically adjust your asset allocation depending on your age and goals, freeing you from having to continuously readjust your portfolio yourself. He acknowledges that rescinding the tax preferences could be tricky politically: The people who have chiefly benefited from them are also the people who write checks to campaigns. But he is confident that Americans can ultimately be persuaded to give up the tax advantages. “If we say to people, ‘Look, we can slash your Social Security benefits or increase your Social Security taxes, or we can reduce this useless subsidy that goes to rich people who don’t need the money’ — well, that’s a little more compelling.”

Hassett told me that his work with Ghilarducci does not represent any softening of his faith in the free market. Quite the opposite: He sees government intervention to boost retirement savings as a necessary step to preserving American capitalism. Hassett has been concerned for some time that the country is drifting toward socialism — the subject of his most recent book — and part of the reason is that too many Americans are economically marginalized and have come to feel that the system doesn’t work to their benefit.

“They feel disconnected, and they are disconnected,” Hassett says. Having the government help them save for retirement would be prudent. “It would give them more of a stake in the success of the free-enterprise system,” he says. “I think it’s important for long-run political stability that everybody gets a stake.”

Jen Forbus is not economically marginalized, but many in her community struggle. Lorain, a city of about 65,000 on the shore of Lake Erie, has never recovered from the loss of a Ford assembly plant and two steel plants. Around 28 percent of Lorain’s residents now live in poverty. By the grim standards of her area, Forbus is doing well. “I’m definitely privileged,” she says. Even so, she knows that despite her diligent saving and careful budgeting, there is a good chance that she will not be able to retire at 65. She dreads the prospect of having to remain in the labor market as an elderly person. “Something like waitressing — past a certain age, that’s really difficult,” she says. And she admits that she finds it jarring that even for someone like her, retirement may be an unachievable objective. “I do feel our system fails too many people,” she says.

Read by Malcolm Hillgartner

Narration produced by Tanya Pérez

Engineered by Steven Szczesniak

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