P&I Online readers agree on one thing, they support a government-sponsored retirement plan for people without employer-sponsored plans. However, P&I Online readers do not agree on what level of government should manage such a plan.
Almost 59% of P&I Online readers support a government-sponsored retirement plan, whereas 41% were squarely against any government-sponsored retirement plans.
Of that 59%, the federal government would be the clear favorite if only one level of government were to sponsor a retirement plan. The federal government received 20.7% of the responses, with state government receiving 14.2% of the responses. The least favorite idea is local government sponsoring retirement plans receiving only 0.5% of the votes.
The most popular yes response was "some combination" receiving 23.5% of responses.
Sixteen states either are considering legislation or taking the first steps toward implementing retirement accounts for the private sector, according to a recent Pensions & Investments story.
Even Republicans are warming to the idea of government-sponsored retirement accounts as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., recently put forth the idea of opening the Federal Thrift Savings Plan to people without employee-sponsored retirement plans.
