The sad truth is that private retirement savings schemes have been a total wash. The only lasting effects of these plans were the stock and real estate bubbles

The sad truth is that private retirement savings schemes have been a total wash. The only lasting effects of these plans were the stock and real estate bubbles that effectively transferred the wealth accrued during the Boomers' prime earning years to Wall Street. Only the lucky few with defined-benefit pensions are going to retire in the conventional sense. For everyone else, it will be a return to the world before the New Deal where most people worked until they were physically unable to work, then died in penury if they didn't have relatives to support them.