The big thing that happened to these people was the pension crisis. They were told, while working they would get a decent pension early in their career Plus

The big thing that happened to these people was the pension crisis. They were told, while working they would get a decent pension early in their career Plus when most started, it was expected you would be with the company your full lives. Then the 70s and 80s happened, people did not realize there would be a paradigm shift in the work force. So here we are, and back then IRAs were limited on what you could save and I think there were no 401k's at all.