Defined benefit pension funds have always been a nice pot of money to enable corruption. That is why IRA/401k is better. Just let people choose what they want from Vanguard/Fidelity/Schwab.
Alternatively, one could imagine a pension system where the state gives one money to ensure one can continue living, paid for by taxes, without inserting a casino in the middle. But perhaps that's a tad radical.
Indeed, but it's been steadily deliberately undermined as the idea that a government has no responsibility to it's citizens except to keep the line going up and trickle down economics took root. It's easy to see how pension funds play into this. They are a tool that ties up millions of people's future and savings into the stock market, providing the financial sector with a huge number of retail investors who can be made to hold the bag for financial crashes. Under this angle, it is not at all surprising that they would end up investing into incredibly risky ventures.
Defined Benefit pensions went the way of the dodo ages ago because it's too expensive for employers. Everybody is now at the mercy of defined contribution plans.
Taxpayer funded DB pensions are very alive today. Lots of big pots of money for politicians and government employee union leaders to play with (or influence), and extremely easy way to pay government employees with debt without actually having to admit it is debt due to taxpayer funded DB pensions being exempt from regulations regarding proper accounting such as ERISA 1974 and PPA 2006.
