"60 Minutes" raised fears about newly threadbare retirements with a piece this month entitled "401K Recession". While the title singled out private retirement plans, the report painted its grim picture largely by interviewing those affected by the "trifecta" of America's economic downturn: those who had lost their jobs, lost value in their homes and lost money in their 401Ks.

Since we advocate that teachers should have the option of a defined contribution plan, we thought we had some 'splaining to do. There doesn't seem to be much question that some financial institutions charge too many fees and that some providers use misleading titles for their mutual funds, but since when do some bad apples decide the merit of one path over another? If properly managed, there's no evidence that defined contribution plans aren't a safe option and remain attractive for their portability and flexibility.

True to form, "60 Minutes" demanded to know: "What kind of a retirement plan allows millions of people to lose 30 to 50 percent of their life savings just as they near retirement?" But even on the show's own web site, they concede that if individuals nearing retirement had followed traditional investment advice, with portfolios invested responsibly (60 percent in stocks; 40 percent in bonds), a plan would have only dropped 22 percent from a 2006 high through the recent market crash. That's still a significant sum, but not insurmountable in terms of its loss.