Is the national pension scheme really “benevolent”?

The national pension scheme is provided as a social safety net, especially for the elder population. This is the original idea and the national pension scheme is often funded by individual contributions and government expenditure. In many countries, the national pension scheme dominates private pension schemes, which means the issue of the national pension scheme can become a national issue. As the national pension fund is enormous, especially when the national pension scheme is absolutely dominating, the national pension fund becomes extremely powerful and influential in the financial market, giving the example of the Japanese national pension fund, the largest fund in the world. As the pension scheme is national, the government has a lot of control on the fund. As the pension fund is so influential, the government uses it as an additional government budget, especially when they believe they can use the pension fund to boost the economy thus create a higher return for the pension fund in the future. Such belief is reasonable, but as the consequence is not necessarily immediate, the possibility of the consequence of failure is often ignored. Moreover, in some governments, some politicians could be forced to take short-sighted actions due to the election pressure. Therefore, sometimes the national pension fund is used in other purposes, which are more risky and dangerous. Such behavior could worsen the fortunate of the pension fund. The expansionary fiscal policy has to entirely use the government budget, other than other sources including the national pension fund; otherwise, the risk of the expansionary fiscal policy is too high.