Congress looking to change or even abolish this key 401(k) provision

[progree]

6. I didn't realize that companies were required to offer a defined benefit plan

had not heard that one before.

I do realize that yes, companies started offering 401k's as a "big benefit", and then started chipping away at their pensions and getting rid of them for new employees, but that had more to do with growing foreign competition and the weakening of the power of unions than the existence of the 401k.

ON EDIT: Though the companies did make it sound like a 401k was as good as, or even better than a pension because of flexibility, portability, you didn't have to work for the same company for 20 years in order to get more than a tiny pension, blah blah, and you could become a millionaire if you invested well (instead of stuck with a boring formula-determined pension) and all that. So yes, in that way, it was part of a clever marketing job.