Quite frankly we should revise the PRIVATE sector to be more in line with the PUBLIC sector. We SHOULD be able to have a system that is paid into, that you can take with you from company to company, but that isn't subject to the kinds of abuses that seem to happen in the public sector.

In other words, your retirement should, like FDR said, consist of a platform supported on 3 legs.

1) Savings. Today the vehicle is a 401(k). In most places your employer will match, to a point, what you put in, giving a good incentive to save.

2) Pension. This used to be THE RULE. Now, in our coporate race to the bottom, they're almost unheard of and the M&A market seems to be ensuring it's extinction (pension funds are frequently liquidated in a bankruptcy or buyout).

3) Social Security. The system everyone pays into acting as the last-resort safety net.

If I stay with the Air Force for another 18.5 years, I'll qualify for 20% of my salary as a pension. If my TSP (government version of a 401k) doesn't get raided anymore (no more divorces or disaters) and if Social Security doesn't go TOTALLY broke (latest estimate is that they'll have enough money for 75% of the benefits), I might be ok.