401k's are only government backed in a weird circular way. If there were no government, they would work fine as a retirement savings plan. The government backs

401k's are only government backed in a weird circular way. If there were no government, they would work fine as a retirement savings plan. The government backs them only by protecting them from the government taking more of the money in taxes. And as the other response mentions, this was more in about the idea of the government funding and controlling it.