Well, to be fair pensions werent like cash reserves, they were investment funds.

Which is a different issue all together.

But that’s how Bernie Madoff got so much, in addition to wealthy individuals he scammed the pension funds of major cities.

Shit didn’t get fucked up overnight, it was a slow progression. Which is why we can’t just roll back 50 years and pretend it’s solved, shit will just fuck up again.

Edit:

And even when it was a cash reserve, it was basically tied to the stock of that company.

If they went bankrupt, no pension.

So say you got a Walmart pension, it was dependant on Walmart existing till you died. If a major player was dethroned, it meant a bunch of people losing pensions. So there was still a lot of institutional momentum even back then