Usually when the government gets in involved in programs to make a certain thing better, more often than not, what is happening is that one group of people benefits while another group takes the hit. For example, when Unions benefit by allowing the minimum wage the rise, the losers are the people priced out of the employment market. Another example is when farmers are assisted by pushing ethanol programs the food market suffers as prices for corn, soy and wheat based goods suffer. Very rare is the program initiated by the government that actually serves everyone well.
Recently the Obama administration rolled out just such a program. In it, the President speaks to the idea of individuals saving for their own retirement “nest eggs”. Anything that can be done to make this easier, all the while keeping the responsibility on the individual worker, is a fantastic idea. In most cases government adds complexity to what could otherwise be simple and straight forward processes. In the ideas that Obama is speaking about, he is making it easier to save. He isn’t creating programs, isn’t creating unnatural incentives, he is simply making it easier. And THAT is good.
However, he does speak to changing existing law or regulations. He would like to change the way in which auto enrollment is handled. Rather than having to opt in to a savings plan, he wants to be able to have the language stat that an employee needs to opt out. When done in this manner, he could increase tha rate of those who save from 70% to about 90%. A fantastic number.
In short, emphasis on savings and hard work coming from Washington that speaks to individual responsibility is a great thing.