[ilammy]

> You now if these financial markets just evaporated, who would care really, except a few aristocrats?

Everybody, because retirement is tied to financial markets.

We can’t possibly not pay out 401k’s, right? Isn’t that a neat trick to ensure that everybody cares about the health of financial markets?

[zamnos]

Embezzling from the pension fund is a popular move among dishonest accountants, and what can you do if the money's simply not there? In times of great upheaval, promises get broken and in a governmental collapse, there's no entity left to keep those promises.

Hopefully we are not in such calamitous times, but we shall have to see.