Stock market vs. cryptocurrency vs. cash vs. guns in a bunker is all a bet on what the future looks like. When you say "There's no other choice - where else can you get high liquidity with good returns and a government backstopping the risk?", that's an implicit bet that a.) people will continue to demand stocks b.) for more money than they pay now and c.) under the government as it exists currently. That has been a good bet for the last 80 years.

But there's a saying in financial markets: "past performance is no indicator of future results". If you believe that the future will be worse than the present for the vast majority of people, your priority shouldn't be to make more money in the future - it should be to preserve what you have and make sure you're not the one left without a chair when the music stops.

And the way in which the music stops determines which asset class you might want to hold. If you believe that investors en masse will have a loss of confidence in the future earning power of American business, but without a monetary or political collapse, you should move to cash. If you believe that the government's support of the stock market will hyperinflate the currency, you might want to look into one of the many cryptocurrencies that promise quick transactions. If you believe we're headed for widespread social collapse, you should get some guns and plant a garden in a small non-descript home (or bunker) in the middle of nowhere.