Defined benefit plans mostly work OK (with some bankruptcy exceptions modulo various legal protections) for people working a decade or two for a firm. Probably

Defined benefit plans mostly work OK (with some bankruptcy exceptions modulo various legal protections) for people working a decade or two for a firm. Probably not great benefits but I know I wasn't even thinking about my pension early career. So now it's essentially free money from mental accounting perspective. 401ks require deliberate action which a lot of people won't do or at least put off and they may make poor investment decisions--like invest everything in their own company's stock if that's an option.