If its one thing that I've consistently found among my American friends, its a shocking lack of any kind of long-term financial saving/thinking (note that I say most, not all. And people in the tech industry are generally better about this but not always). Any time they come across some sort of financial windfall, its all spent in vacations, car or a new house. The house at least is a financial investment so I will give you that.
On the other hand, I have very little sympathy for people who are paid well but don't plan wisely. How can you not understand that you need to save money? It takes all of a couple hours to understand the basics of a 401(k) or traditional/Roth IRA, and you don't have to set it up perfectly to have an effective savings plan. I greatly resent the idea that my productivity should be siphoned off to protect the latter group from the consequences of their actions.
I'm also not sold on subsidizing financial firms with the tax benefits of 401Ks and IRAs, but it's better than nothing. But it's obvious that giving politicians a big pot of money to throw around and a lien on future taxpayers is also terrible.
"Value" was only lost if all the assets were sold in 2008. Assuming you were diversified and just had the run of the mill index funds, you'd have tripled your "value" since then. The dollar loses value every day, and it will continue to do so, so you need to make sure you're making more and more of it. Unless you're adept at investing in cash flow businesses and maintaining them, your best bet is via the stock market. At least then you can tread water, and if another recession comes, the government will just print some more again, but at least you'll be treading water with inflation.
"Americans are bad at saving money, but Europeans are much worse" - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-are-bad-at-savin...