Good? It's tax-advantaged for a reason. As a taxpayer I want people paying for their own retirement. I don't want social spending to explode because people don't save enough. The penalty (which is not nearly high enough IMO) is there to dissuade people from using it as a piggy bank then mortgaging their future and the social spending of their neighbors because they want to buy a new Tahoe or put an addition on their fully-mortgaged house.