It skews the market, of course. Currently, I stay in South Africa. Here they don't have a similar mandate, but a de-facto one by virtue of giving a large tax-benefit to individuals who put up to 25%(I think) of their annual income into a Retirement Annuity. This is a private thing (except for government employees), but withdrawal from it is regulated by government among other rules.
You lose an immeasurable amount of opportunity cost by putting away so much of your earnings there. Not to mention that most of these retirement products are heavily linked to equities, meaning you are very likely to lose a lot if the market down-turns. Short of going on a huge rant on the topic, I'll just settle to saying it's a huge scam that makes people indebted/vested into keeping the market system chugging along, no matter what.
And then we are being told that "rich people" are causing inequality. Right.
You lose an immeasurable amount of opportunity cost by putting away so much of your earnings there. Not to mention that most of these retirement products are heavily linked to equities, meaning you are very likely to lose a lot if the market down-turns. Short of going on a huge rant on the topic, I'll just settle to saying it's a huge scam that makes people indebted/vested into keeping the market system chugging along, no matter what.
And then we are being told that "rich people" are causing inequality. Right.