[deathclassic]

Everyone's children is their retirement plan - just some societies have socialized/obfuscated this to varying degrees. All retirement financial mechanisms and social programs are funded by younger people paying taxes, and putting money (buying) into things like 401ks, IRAs, Stocks, housing, etc. Retirement is when you "withdraw" (sell) these things for cash to live on without having to work.

[Nifty3929]

You can take it farther than that. In truth, the laws of the universe prevent any real “saving” at all. We will always depend on others at some point to grow our food, cut our hair, etc. That we have fancy accounting gimmicks to track how much of this help we are entitled to only masks this.

[deathclassic]

Exactly. And large scale pension systems and the financial vehicles are essentially the family unit scaled up to the size of a country. I do think there are advantages to doing it the social security way, as it puts less pressure on the individual to take care of their elderly parents. Many people aren't equipped with the time and know-how to run an assisted living facility in their living room, so specialized facilities for that purpose and social programs can help fill in the gaps.