Not a bad post from you. However, let’s put it this way, my Grandfather worked at Coca Cola for 30 years or more and received a pension for life. There never seemed to be any problems in America during that time. He died in 1998 at age 79. Suddenly the companies are getting rid of pensions and they are having problems all over the place. So is America for that matter. If we still ran things like they did back in the day, we would be better off and you wouldn’t have to worry about the gay lifestyle (which is sorta weird example for a pension).
I agree about the condition of the nation, but I suspect the relationship between that fact and the loss of pensions is more correlational than causal. So, yes, if people were like they were back then, we wouldn't have today's problems. But I don't think it's just the pensions (and I'm sure you don't think that literally, either).
For example, having pensions would mean we were back to having the kind of companies that cared about the long term welfare of their employees. That would be a good start. You'd also need a pool of employees that gave a rat's ass about their company.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that there have been tons of social changes and changes in the way people think. It's a big furball of causality, and it's hard to look at a given piece and tell if it's a cause or a result. Probably most things fall in to both categories, or on a continuum between the two.