So this comes full circle:

Market investment isn't a zero-sum game: by providing capital to enterprise, enterprise multiplies it and pays a dividend. If the markets can justify their existence, they should always go up. That's the fundamental underpinning of capitalism.

Finance professionals (and geeks) separate market success into alpha and beta gains. Beta gains are what you get just by participating in the above. If you throw money at every stock in the market, your money should increase. Beta is what you get just for playing. Alpha gains, on the other hand, are what you get when you make more money than the average schlub. Alpha gains are zero-sum. For you to do better than average, someone else has to do worse.

One succinct way to say all market stuff above - percentages diminishing, less returns, yadda yadda - is "diminishing beta gains." You can't educate your way out of that. All you can do is replace your beta with alpha. That's where the name comes from.

From a basic game theory standpoint, if you educate all participants so that they can improve their alpha the only thing you will accomplish is making the game harder. It's like computer scams - we've gone from Nigerian princes to spearphishing secondary targets for access to bank accounts. If everyone stayed stupid we'd still be seeing all-caps entreaties for wire transfers.

So again: the basic problem is that the baby boomers are outliving the capitalism they created. Most developed nations have some sort of demographic problem but none are as dependent on a free market solution as the United States, which is why I think we're going to have the starkest problems.

Social Security is socialism. Medicare is socialism. Frickin' fire departments are socialism. My argument is we need more socialism.