Most of us doesn't have any disposable income to directly invest. Instead we have indirectly become investors thanks to the part of the salary set aside for us in the form of taxes and payments to pension plans. I don't have the numbers, and it differs from country to country, but it's a huge chunk of your salary. Like ~20% of your gross income is used to finance your retirement because you might live several decades after you retire.
The Swedish system (totally simplifying here) works so that once a year you get to allocate about half your tax collected savings to a list of funds selected by some government officials. Another part of your pension if paid by your employer through a pension broker and again you can select among a list of approved funds. All of the funds you can choose from charges a hefty fee to manage your capital.
Had I had the choice I would have withdrawn all my money and paid of my home loans which would have given me a completely risk free return of 3%/year. Instead I can only choose among these funds whose fund managers managed to grease some government official enough to put them on their approved list.