My father was a member of TALB (Teachers Association of Long Beach) in California and retired from there with 20 years of service. He took a reduced pension so that my mother could continue to receive a benefit in case he preceded her in death (which he did, last year). Not a fortune to be sure, but more than adequate to meet her needs. Without it, she would be destitute.

As a boy I was taught this about how wealth is distributed in our capitalist system: you went to work for companies. The owners of those companies had taken a risk in starting a business. They would not pay you the full value of your labor because then they'd have nothing left. In exchange for enjoying the fruits of your labor during your work life (actual value of your labor - what you were paid), you would receive payment in your old age so that you could maintain, roughly, the same level of living standard you were accustomed to while working. We call these payments, "pensions."

It was assumed that the corporate types who got to buy houses in the country clubs and vacation in Marseilles felt an obligation to the folks who generated the revenue that allowed them to do that. Then, Ronald Reagan was elected President and this class of people were told, "Greed is Good" and we could permanently erase the idea that a corporation's owners owed anything to its workers - while they were working and when they retired. The New American Creedo is, "I got mine, you go get yours."

The trouble is, of course, that while the working class has gotten smaller and smaller chunks of the pie, we've been building (at least since the 1980's) a permanent upper class who actually believes they made it on their own and owe nothing to anyone.

An old Krugman post is a useful illustration: http://krugman.blogs...ich-and-clueless/