In the US there is a "fund" that is suppose to be paid into by Private Companies, Unions and others that is like a Pension Insurance. That fund is Extremely underfunded. If your Company goes bust or the Union implodes, last I heard (many years ago), that fund could only cover a bit less than 50% of your benefits, so you will get a massive cut. Also in the past, if you worked for the Federal or State Gov, you did not get Social Security because you paid into a pension. I do not know if that is still true.

But the Federal Gov through cuts (we all know who pushed those cuts) and Union Busting, is causing the whole pension system to go bust since pensions work only if the Company or Union is growing and people are there to pay into it. Now that union membership is optional in many states, money is not flowing into the fund.