[bradleyjg]

>> in practice they tend to spent the extra money. Once they reach retirement, they have fewer assets.

They presumably spend the money on things they want. Forced savings means forced forgone consumption.

Every marginal dollar into savings isn't always a net positive. It depends on a lot of different factors including: life expectancy, whether or not you have dependents, how much you already have saved, your income, your alternatives, and not least of all your intertemporal discount rate.

There seems to be some sort of savings fundamentalism backlash against a culturally low savings rate. In a sound bite situation there may be no choice but to pick a simple message and go with it, but in a longer form discussion there's room for more nuance.