Without some new kind of government-sponsored pension system, researchers have reaffirmed what we continue to hear about every day: Middle-class workers are going to be vastly unprepared for retirement in the coming decades.

Boston College's Center for Retirement Research has studied the pension coverage problem in the private sector and concludes that just 42 percent of working Americans aged 25-64 still have any form of pension related to their jobs.

Worse, coverage from other forms of retirement savings plans including 401(k)s is indeed spotty and the college's research indicates that more than 20 percent of workers who have access to a 401(k) plan choose not to participate. And with Social Security's continued spiral to instability, it's left more than one generation with dangerous prospects looming on the horizon.