Socialism: With Congress eyeing 401(k)s and Barack Obama decrying “corporate greed,” it might pay to look at Argentina’s pension nationalization.

The country’s mediagenic socialist president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, announced Tuesday the state would “protect” private pensions from “policies of plunder” by proposing to hand them over to the government.

Praising her own scheme, she claimed Argentina would “set an example” for global financial crisis management by pulling $29.5 billion out of the private sector, and making it public.

As aghast as Argentines are about this, Americans should be too, because a Democratic supermajority in Congress would have similar ideas about nationalizing 401(k)s.

The country’s mediagenic socialist president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, announced Tuesday the state would “protect” private pensions from “policies of plunder” by proposing to hand them over to the government.

Praising her own scheme, she claimed Argentina would “set an example” for global financial crisis management by pulling $29.5 billion out of the private sector, and making it public.

As aghast as Argentines are about this, Americans should be too, because a Democratic supermajority in Congress would have similar ideas about nationalizing 401(k)s.

In Argentina, the socialization of savings represents a major dismantling of 14 years of privatization and individual rights, reforms that decisively ended Argentina’s dark years of hyperinflation and dictatorship.

Starting in 1994, Argentinians could choose to save for retirement with the state or through a private account that let them make investment decisions based on their retirement needs.

Although it tried to accomplish what Chile’s private retirement accounts did, it wasn’t as well-designed. Fees were 30%. The government rigidly dictated what assets could be held in the accounts. But millions of Argentinians chose them anyway, because it gave them ownership.

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