In China, state-owned enterprises once provided its workers with health and pension benefits as well as housing and wages. As the economy in China has changed, workers have had to look elsewhere to meet their needs. Today, less than 20% of the Chinese have health insurance. In a similar fashion, U.S. employers long have provided their workers with health care and pension benefits. The system began during World War II and stayed stable for decades because American companies faced little competition and could afford to share the wealth with their employees.

However, this system of protection for the American worker is cracking. Big U.S. companies are wriggling out of their pension promises. Healthy companies are moving their old pension plans into defined-contribution plans such as 401(k)s which shift the risk of savings to workers themselves. And 42.4% of private-sector workers age 21 or older aren't offered any pension plan at work.

Health insurance benefits are also being scaled back. Nearly 60% of Americans are covered by their employer, but the percentage keeps slipping. As health and pension benefits have turned out to be more costly than employers realized, companies keep cutting costs to stay competitive. Competition includes foreign companies, where the government bears most of the cost of employee benefits, and upstart rivals that aren't burdened with retirees.

The question facing America right now is who is going to meet the needs of the American people when corporations get out of the health insurance and pension business. There are three options, each with their own set of problems: