4 ms·

I’m not confident you know what a 401k is.

• chgs 2y ago
  Like all investments it’s a hope that trading work done today will be worth work done in the future. This only holds when supply of work is high and demand is low. If the amount of work requested in the future is higher than the supply then it doesn’t matter how many pieces of paper you have to prove that you worked in the past, you are not going to get that work done. With a shrinking population you’re relying of productivity gains, and in areas that old people need, like personal care, there’s only limited gains to be had. If there’s only 100 hours of ass wiping being done but 200 hours demanded, then half of the people requiring that service will be disapointed. But that’s just the general problem of timeshifting your work. You rely on the next generation to honour “the deal”. Now the 401k specifically has other issues. It tends to be “pile money in the S&P”, which simply increases the values of those stocks regardless of their fundamental worth. Passive investments lead to bubbles and collapse. https://www.ft.com/content/994bdda8-b704-4e4c-9b19-4e0021f0b309 https://www.ft.com/content/994bdda8-b704-4e4c-9b19-4e0021f0b... Throw both of those together and you end up with a disaster waiting to happen.