>>12 And as for the 401k, it is commonly (foolishly, erroneously) treated as a nest egg in practice, counted before it hatches, relied upon, in other words, gambled upon. It is a sham from start to finish, of course, a promise to pay on a promise to pay, bizarre to say the least, but it seems to get the peons up out of bed in the morning, so can't be all bad.
Again, you still don't know what a 401k is. A 401k or IRA is merely a container. Are you advocating keeping all your money in cash? You can do that with a 401k or IRA. You can keep it 100% cash if you want to. The only difference between keeping the money in cash in a 401k and in cash at your bank is the tax advantage. Gold? You can do it. Real estate? You can do it. The 401k or IRA is merely a tax-advantaged container for whatever you'd be doing with your money anyway, so you'd be a damn fool not to take as much advantage of the tax protection as you can. Of course, over a long time horizon, keeping all your money in cash is retarded -- the only thing that makes sense over a long time horizon is a fully diversified portfolio consisting primarily of US and international stock, with a lesser stake in bonds and a still lesser stake in cash. This of course doesn't count your emergency funds, which of course should be kept in cash or short-term bonds.