I DON'T NOT WANT MY 401(K). The Los Angeles Times has an interesting article on the move towards automatic enrollment in 401(k)s, also known as opt-out 401(k)s. The basic concept is simple: People are lazy. You, probably, are lazy. If forced to request, fill out, and turn in the forms that are necessary in order to set a retirement nest egg, you'll probably instead just go watch somebody get hit in the crotch with a baseball on YouTube. Similarly, if you're automatically entered into the 401(k), rather than go through the hassle of removing yourself from a sensible, dutiful savings shelter, you'll just adapt. While saving. And watching folks get hit in the crotch on YouTube. It'll be much better all around. And so corporations are beginning to do exactly that, and the results, at times, are extraordinary, with participation leaping from 37 percent to 86 percent. Given America's negative savings rate, there are few more painless and effective ways to reverse a really worrying trend.
--Ezra Klein
