Robo-advice is all the range with participant-directed retirement plans, so I suppose it's no surprise that 401(k) plans have made their way into none other than USA's Mr. Robot (thanks to Jon B. for pushing me to watch).
Now, I've been noticing ever since the sub-prime crash that market downturns have consistently been reported by the press through the prism of retirement planning. To wit, any given downturn seems likely to be reported in the context of how much it diminishes the value of "your 401(k) plan". I'm not talking about financial papers; I'm talking about tabloid reporting. 401(k) plans have become a part of the very fabric of our basic financial lives.
And now they're in Mr. Robot, in the run-up to the climactic scene in the Season One season finale. To wit:
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Allsafe Cybersecurity's temporary CFO - Best thing you can do for them is to let them know soon, so they can find other jobs. And . . .
Michael Gill's Gideon Goddard - What?
CFO - All their 401(k)s were tied up in the market, which is expected to plummet once the bell rings.
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Later in the same episode, Richard Bekins' James Plouffe laments how his pension, etc., had been wrapped up in his troubled company and is now lost (I'm guessing he was referring to his unfunded top hat benefits?). Looks like retirement benefits are as omnipresent in the Mr. Robot world as they are in the real world. I won't go into more detail, as I like to avoid spoilers.
On a slightly unrelated note, before we leave the season finale, I do want to make note of the fact that the episode features what to me is one of the great songs of all time, Jim Carroll's "People Who Died". Listen for it, and then, if you haven't previously, listen to the whole thing. (Yes, "that" Jim Carroll - "The Basketball Diaries" guy.)
Cool.
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1 comment:
And now the Carroll song makes its appearance in Gunn's The Suicide Squad. Gotta love it.
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