Pensions: Financing and Regulation

Except in a hypothetical individualistic and primitive society, where each person produces for his or her own consumption, everyone depends for survival, at least in part, on an allocation of goods and services produced by others. This allocation can be based on trade, perhaps facilitated by money, or made in accordance with a perceived obligation. For persons with reduced productivity resulting from advanced age or disability, the obligation might be based on family loyalty, institutionalized charity, or past meritorious service (e.g., in the case of a military veteran). For an individual entrepreneur, the allocation could come as rent for a farm or shop developed in the past.