I swear the broad adoption of 401k programs is one of the biggest crimes against the working class.

So much risk for the owner of the money and tons of upside for all the supply chain servicing them.

The idea of people investing their retirement seems like a good one, but yes I'm afraid it winds up just being a scam. The worst part appears to be that the monetary authorities now can't allow recessions, because that would destroy people's ability to retire. So, you get a bloated economy where creative destruction isn't allowed to occur.

What risk? The 401k is for retirement planning, you're looking at 20+ years horizon, the risk on a global index fund is inexistant at that time scale

Most people with a 401k derive a small portion of their income from it.

If >60% of your income comes from your day job, you're not part of the investor class, you're part of the working class.

Why do you think this?

You're not technically wrong, but I think a reasonable reading of my comment could see the implication that I was speaking of the individuals who are actively investing and derive their primary income from it.

If some schmuck pulling 50K a year with a passive 1% contribution to his 401K thinks he's the same as Warren Buffet or the guys at Bain, I can't stop him.