Further to the point, that article was just another example of trash financial "journalism". It's been thoroughly debunked by several, including the online representatives of Ritholz Wealth. Absolutely opposite of "leaving so many out in the cold", the 401K has allowed literally millions of people to build wealth they could not have hoped for without it, while perhaps accelerating the corporate process of ending traditional defined benefit plans.

Yes, there are also many people that never had jobs from companies providing a 401K, have never had access to it - but it's a complete fallacy to "blame" that on the 401K. People either get jobs from companies with 401Ks, or they can't / don't.

My example, for what it's worth - after 27 years of service with an insurance company that provided BOTH (a rarity even in the mid-80s), I have a pension annual payment available of X. They recently offered a lowball buyout of about 11X. By comparison, over a slightly longer timespan, my 401Ks (rolled over) now stand at 20X, even with the crappy investment options in that company's plan.

The point is, there's no way I'd be in a position to retire reasonably comfortably, let alone a few years early, after nearly 40 years of working full time at a "soft" corporate job - on SS and that pension without the 401K.