[brokencode]

True, that’s an argument against the typical passive, broad market, market cap weighted fund like VTI or SPY.

But there are many funds that have different strategies, both passive and active. Such as by investing based on value, quality, dividends, etc.

I get that the average person doesn’t know this, but the 401k doesn’t inherently force somebody into broad market funds.

[idiotsecant]

When you destroy pensions by crushing organized labor, create 401k incentives, and place your new captive audience by default into a certain investment class, a whole lot of people are going to leave it there. Whether the provider forces anyone to do anything is irrelevant, it creates second order impacts that ultimately lead to what is perhaps the greatest attempted fleecing in market history

[brokencode]

Pensions also invest in stocks, though the difference is that pensioners have no control at all. Of course, they also have guarantees of a certain level of income.

I think the main problem with the 401k is that not enough people actually contribute to one. Or they don’t put in enough.

But I very much doubt the average person who’d invested enough over several decades in a 401k feels like they got fleeced.