A distinction without a difference?"It wasn't a bad idea - it just wasn't well designed when it was instituted." S2 #1,320
If it were designed substantially differently, it wouldn't be Social Security. Clearly it's the design that is the problem.
Anyone wish to challenge that?"The biggest ponzi scheme of all time." ~ Elon Musk on Social Security #1,318
I know of no exception. The inevitable end of any pyramid scam is collapse, failure. Rhetorically the only thing to save Social Security is "too big to fail". That means forestalling a catastrophe with a disaster.
Any such system should be robust enough to be immune from adversity. Are 401k funds at risk to the Trump / Musk mushroom cloud?
The original implementers may not have known the precise date upon which this even occurs. They needn't."When Social Security was implemented there were approximately 16 workers per retiree. Now there are three and that's projected to drop to two in the relatively near future." S2 #1,320
It was inevitable.
401k is impervious to this.
"The policy of the American government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining nor aiding them in their pursuits." Thomas Jefferson
"I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves, and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion." Thomas Jefferson
"The proverb warns that "You should not bite the hand that feeds you." But maybe you should, if it prevents you from feeding yourself." psychiatrist Thomas Szasz
Social Security as currently manifest renders U.S. citizens, retirees more dependent, not less.
401k is the opposite. The difference? U.S. federal government administers the former, but regulates the latter.
U.S. government deliberately inflicting policy rendering its citizens even more dependent upon it, coincidence? As much so as the sunrise.