Meaning that over the long term no large pot of money goes unlooted. The public doesn't have enough influence to stop, say, some form of nationalizing of 401k accounts into pension plans wherein what they are invested in is decided by government employees. Large segments of the public would even go along with it. That then turns into looking like just another tax and entitlement because the funds can be siphoned off and spent immediately, much like social security.
The present status quo regarding finance in the US cannot continue indefinitely. Sooner or later the obligations cannot be met. There are all sorts of failure modes and unpleasant things that can happen along that road, as more funds are sought, or various institutions collapse, and the looters become ever more brazen. Some form of prettified confiscation of 401k accounts isn't anywhere near the worst of them.
> Meaning that over the long term no large pot of money goes unlooted.
Actually, if you look at average fees charged by financial institution, and the divertion of returns on capital to hedge funds and high-frequency traders, 401k funds are already being effectively looted.
> some form of nationalizing of 401k accounts into pension plans wherein what they are invested in is decided by government employees.
Hahhaaahaahaaaaa. That's a good one. But in cae someone else doesn't get the joke and takes you seriously, let me explain the joke. Wall Street already has your 401k money, they don't need to siphon it off via tax cuts for the wealthy like we did with the Social Security surplus.
The present status quo regarding finance in the US cannot continue indefinitely. Sooner or later the obligations cannot be met. There are all sorts of failure modes and unpleasant things that can happen along that road, as more funds are sought, or various institutions collapse, and the looters become ever more brazen. Some form of prettified confiscation of 401k accounts isn't anywhere near the worst of them.