Just ask the poor souls whove had been putting into thier 401ks for the last 25 years and have nothing to show for it and cant retire,short term long term they are nothing but ponzi schemes just like bernie madeoff with all the money ponzi scheme.
Excluding people who actually HAVE lost everything in the Madoff scam, noone has lost "their entire retirement" in the market over the last couple years. YES... they may have lost 35 or 40% (in a good fund) and yes it's come back in the 15% range (in a good fund) this year... but be realistic. Just because the market goes down does NOT mean you lose money. You only lose when you sell. When you hit 65 years old... do you withdraw all your $ from your retirement account? NO, you leave it there to grow (albeit at a more conservative rate, probably in bond funds at 7 - 8%). You withdraw just enough to live off of... so, yes, for a couple years while the market recovers, you should live more modestly than you would have otherwise (and that sucks), but the $ you leave in the market while it recovers will grow back into what it was before or something similar.
But let's say someone WAS investing over the last 25 years... and over the last 2 years lost 35%... they STILL have more than they would have had if they were invested in a pension fund for a company that goes bankrupt (i.e. the fund fails). They still have a LOT more! (for the record, they'd still have WAY more $ than if they had just put all the $ in a mattress also).
So really... it's ridiculous to say that people "lost everything" in the market... yah, we've lost a bunch, but in reality you haven't lost anything unless you HAVE to sell (i.e. cash out for $ to live on in retirement)... so the people retiring THIS YEAR will have to live conservatively until the bulk of their retirement accounts recover with the market, and that recover is already underway. There are ups and downs... but historically (even averaging in the huge depressions we've had) the market earns between 8% and 12%.
Besides, if you're REALLY worried about it, put all your 401k in a US Bond fund... they return 7% to 9% practically guaranteed. But think about this... if you are in a pension, YOU have no control on how conservatively or aggresively your retirement is managed.