The country that has been most successful in shifting the pension burden from the state to corporations and individuals is the U.K. A series of reforms, which started in the 1980s, make Britain the only European nation to project a decrease in the percentage of GDP it will spend on pensions over the next 50 years. Among other initiatives, between 2010 and 2020 the government plans to raise the retirement age for women from the current 60 to 65 — the same age as for men.

A more ambitious recent move has been the introduction of "stakeholder pensions." From last October, the government has required all businesses with more than five workers to choose a pension plan for their employees who want to opt out of the standard state occupational pension system. Stakeholder plans — which were designed primarily with low-to-mid-income earners in mind — seem like an ideal vehicle.

Companies like them because they are not required to make any pension contributions — such schemes are financed entirely by contributions from the individual. Individuals should like them because, unlike the state scheme, stakeholder pensions offer them more control over where their money is invested — in mutual funds, for example. But the plan has had negative consequences. In order to cut costs, some corporations are downgrading the pension coverage they provide new employees, by placing them in self-financed stakeholder schemes rather than company plans.