If you were endeavouring to convince a young relative as to the merits of investing in risk assets, you need only point to the bleakness of future state retirement provisions. A UK government hamstrung by debt is faced with the prospect of a falling proportion of workers to retirees at the same time that defined-benefit pensions in the private sector are being consigned to the history books.
You don’t have to be an arch monetarist to take the view that any responsible administration would take the decision to restrict state pension provision in future, yet any such proposal would be viewed as political kryptonite.
Regrettably, successive governments have avoided the underlying issues through stop-gap measures, or unsustainable mechanisms such as the pensions triple lock. By kicking the can down the road, they’ve merely delayed a major reckoning as the numbers simply don’t add up any more.