One of the strangest claims made in the debates about social insurance now roiling the world’s richest countries is the that government-funded defined-benefit pension programs (such as America’s Social Security system) are outmoded. These programs were fine, the argument goes, for the industrial economy of the Great Depression and the post-World War II generation, but they have become obsolete in today’s high-tech, networked, post-industrial economy.
有关社会保险问题辩论的最为奇怪的观点之一令世界最为富裕的国家莫衷一是。这一观点认为，由政府资助的、固定金额的养老金体制（例如美国的社会保险体系）过时了。这些观点认为，对经济大萧条和二战后年代中的工业化经济体而言，这些养老金体制是不错的，但是，在当今高科技、网络化以及后工业化经济体中，他们已经落伍了。