This article is so slanted I am amazed that its not hawking some kind of retirement product. You'll note that the article cites research by the "National Pension Rights Council", an organization basically only quoted by this article, and an organization likely only interested in preserving its outdated way of dealing with retirement funding (IE: 100% employer funded).
While figuring out what to do with your IRA or 401k may seem daunting, its not, and its certainly better than a pension...
The problems with retirement savings going forward are many and varied.
First, it is increasingly difficult to achieve good average returns in the financial markets as a small-time retail investor. There are myriad reasons for why this is but the fact remains and is unlikely to change soon. That so much capital is chasing increasingly meager investments is one of the reasons we have cycles of overheated markets and crashes.
Second, Americans are terrible at saving money. An unbelievable amount of income for the average American household is wasted on frivolous consumption and collecting status symbols. When I was genuinely poor I always managed to save some money (indeed, it is what put me in the habit when I was not poor) but I know countless people who make six-figure incomes who have no savings and lack even the most rudimentary discipline to do so. In most cases, socking away 20% of their take home pay would not even require a material lifestyle change, just making more prudent financial decisions. This falls squarely on individual Americans; few have legitimate reasons why they cannot save at least some money.
Lastly, the government really can't solve this problem for us by doing the saving for us. As poor as the return in the markets is for many people, the returns on capital handed to the government are consistently even poorer.
For most people, the second point is the most important. Live below your means and save the balance. 401(k) is really beside the point. I don't even put my savings into retirement accounts, in part because the investment options suck in those accounts. Simply not pissing money away on frivolous and imprudent expenses is sufficient to start building significant savings for most people.
The only actual point this article makes is that its hard to save up enough money to live off of for 20-30 years. You can't trash 401(k)s without providing an alternative that is better. It's hard to save for retirement. That's a fact of life. 401(k)s are one of the easiest ways to do it though.
Plus you don't pay federal income tax on the money when putting it in and then don't pay capital gains taxes on your gains year after year. They neglect mentioning that not paying capital gains on your 7% gains saves you more or less 1.4% of your money with is more than the 1% fee they complain about.
While figuring out what to do with your IRA or 401k may seem daunting, its not, and its certainly better than a pension...