The Origins of the Ownership Society: How the Defined Contribution Paradigm Changed America

As Baby Boomers plan for their retirements, finance their children's educations, and provide for their families' medical expenses, they confront a fundamental reality: America today is a defined contribution society. We save for retirement, health care and educational savings through IRAs, 401(k) accounts, 529 programs, FSAs, HRAs, HSAs and other individual accounts which did not exist a generation ago. In its own way, the emergence of these accounts has been a revolution which has, step-by-step, without fanfare, cumulatively transformed tax and social policy in fundamental ways. The Origins of the Ownership Society describes the defined contribution revolution, its causes, and implications. For lawyers, the book provides useful insights into the network of individual accounts which are now central features of the U.S. income tax for retirement, medical, and health savings. For those concerned about public policy, the book provides useful guidance regarding our options in providing for the retirement of the mass numbers of Baby Boomers, and in preparing young Americans for the medical costs of their older years. The defined contribution format will, for good or for ill, be the framework governing the Baby Boomers' choices. For everyone else, including the Baby Boomers themselves, the book explains where we are, how and why we got there, and what our options are for the future.

About the Author :
Edward A. Zelinsky, The Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law, Benjamin N. Cordozo School of Law, Yeshiva University

Review :
"This is an extraordinarily important, very well-written and thoroughly researched book. It is probably also the most insightful pension book of the decade. Zelinsky is exactly right when he says that there has been a paradigm shift from traditional defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. Of special note, this book is technically stout: Zelinsky discusses all of the important ideas relating to pensions and cites virtually all of the key literature." -Jonathan Barry Forman Alfred P. Murrah Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law "By placing the current trend away from defined benefit arrangements and toward defined contribution arrangements in a broader context, Zelinsky has enriched the debate and has provided much food for thought to all those interested in the challenge of retirement planning in an aging society. This book will help frame a more productive debate about how best to improve retirement planning arrangements over the next two or three decades."--David Pratt, Professor of Law, Albany Law School "Scholars who write and teach more broadly in the labor and employment field will certainly find the book an instructive and useful one."--Susan J. Stabile, Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law "By placing the current trend away from defined benefit arrangements and toward defined contribution arrangements in a broader context, Zelinsky has enriched the debate and has provided much food for thought to all those interested in the challenge of retirement planning in an aging society. This book will help frame a more productive debate about how best to improve retirement planning arrangements over the next two or three decades."--David Pratt, Professor of Law, Albany Law School "Scholars who write and teach more broadly in the labor and employment field will certainly find the book an instructive and useful one."--Susan J. Stabile, Dean George W. Matheson Professor of Law, St. John's University School of Law "This is an extraordinarily important, very well-written and thoroughly researched book. It is probably also the most insightful pension book of the decade. Zelinsky is exactly right when he says that there has been a paradigm shift from traditional defined benefit plans to defined contribution plans. Of special note, this book is technically stout: Zelinsky discusses all of the important ideas relating to pensions and cites virtually all of the key literature." -Jonathan Barry Forman Alfred P. Murrah Professor of Law, University of Oklahoma College of Law "A useful and readable summary of the legal developments on the path to the expansion of the defined contribution paradigm in private sector retirement benefits in the United States." --Tom Baker, Journal of Pension Economics and Finance