Even at the mid-1970s peak of defined-benefit plans, fewer than 40 percent of private-sector workers had them. Today, decades after the shift to 401(k)s began, 61 percent of private-sector workers are participating in a retirement plan. The percentage of all workers vested in any kind of retirement plan has risen from 24 in 1979 to 43 in 2012.

Some people ought to be saving more, and some policies need to be changed.

Social Security should be reformed so that it does less to suppress saving and more to protect the elderly from poverty. A guaranteed minimum benefit above the poverty level could be more than paid for by reducing the growth of benefits for high-earners, and lower payroll taxes on older employees can encourage longer working lives.

These are changes that would build on, rather than attempt to reverse, the last few decades of developments in the American retirement system. Those developments, especially the rise of the 401(k), have largely been for the better.

Read the full article on retirement by Ramesh Ponnuru at American Enterprise Institute