And even <i>having</i> a retirement was a mid-century innovation that garnered its share of opposition. America has always made the political and economic tradeoffs to maximize employment, but politically it seems difficult to sustain a system that results in lower wages, fewer benefits, greater uncertainty <i>and</i> higher unemployment (plus ancillary social stress markers like opiate addiction) -- the Trump&#x2F;Sanders dynamics this year may presage a future boom in populist politics on both sides of the political spectrum.