fatvegan

Managing superannuation funds is a bit like managing a central bank. There are benefits from having the government do it, but also some disadvantages. The benefits of having the government in charge is that government will hopefully keep the interests of normal people in mind. The disadvantage is, obviously, that the government can't do anything well and will screw the whole thing up. Which means that superannuation funds and central banks have to be managed by the markets. Yes! The markets! It's the only feasible solution.

There may be problems, but we'll just have to learn live with them. The markets may run off with our retirement savings, or run off with our foreign reserves, but surely that isn't as bad as having the government in charge. You can't give the government our retirement savings, because the government would own shares in our corporations. The government can't own shares. That would mean they were in charge of the economy. Which is preposterous. That would be no different to outright communism.

I suppose you could have an independent trustee for your central bank. Like the rest of the world. Maybe that would work. I'm not saying it's a great idea or anything, but maybe. But there's no way you could do that for retirement savings. Obviously it wouldn't work at all. Retirement savings are totally different. Central banks are central banks aren't they. And retirement savings have different needs. Only the markets can serve those needs. It should be blatantly obvious.