401(k) is an amazing system, because it's accountable. The only use for a traditional pension is to hide the liabilities for someone else to discover later; or

401(k) is an amazing system, because it's accountable. The only use for a traditional pension is to hide the liabilities for someone else to discover later; or perhaps avoid the liabilities completely by declaring bankruptcy. 401k solves the problem by putting the assets with a third party immediately. Maybe there's some way to have an insurance product to handle cases where people live longer than normal. That could be an improvement. But that should be handled by a fourth party. That sounds like an annoying number of parties. But trust me -- mixing up of money for today with money for 30 years from now is just not a good system (in the private sector or government).