These people aren't entirely wrong, but at the same time a scant number of them (in my personal experience) bother doing something boring like investing their money in a taxable account or IRA. In a peak act of irony, they dismiss the stock market as "gambling." They'll give bits of money away in a piecemeal attempt at random chance but dismiss participating in a market that has a far, far greater level of predictability than lottery tickets. It doesn't matter that the barrier to entry has been lowered to near-zero. It doesn't matter that a person can invest in a single ETF so they can set it and forget it. They won't do it. So while the economic situation has become more challenging for a lot of people, if all people are doing is trusting their 401k and otherwise throwing their money at random chance, then I really don't want to hear them complain.