If you invest $100 K in a ten year government bond at 0.5 % that has your interest taxed at 25% and inflation averages 2%, after 10 years, your 100K will have been been worth less than 85K. Does that sound like a good investment?
You know institutions have have been buying them at these low rates for a long time, right? Right now, central banks are buying bonds themselves in many cases as part of their policy goals. These aren't really for personal investment.