You are right about former teachers. Many thought they were vastly underpaid while they taught, and now they feel cheated with underpaid retirement checks as well. In some states, raises are rare for teacher retirees. They do believe that there is a government solution to most problems. Many also resent being ineligible for Social Security in many situations.
They are ineligible because the didn’t pay into the system. Those “in the know”, however, worked during their summers to get enough “quarters” in to be eligible. It didn’t take much, other than to swallow their pride and go “clerk” in a store a few summers, or some other entry level position. I knew tons of teachers who did that so that they could “double dip” in their retirement.
Part of this “blank” spot on their brains is that they hear of somebody’s large bonus in the private sector and assume that that person gets a bonus like that every year. They never factor in the years in that person’s career where they got no bonus, or took a cut, or worked 80 hour weeks, no vacation, no retirement, commission only, and sometimes no pay to “make it”. They hear of a well paid job in the private sector and do not realize that the holder of that job gets to hold it for 2-3 years at the most before they are eased out. It is very rare indeed for people starting out in the private sector these days to hold a job from college graduation until retirement.