Jacques Delors — French Economist born on June 20, 1925,

Jacques Lucien Jean Delors is a French economist and politician, previously the eighth President of the European Commission and the first person to serve three terms in that office. He is the father of Martine Aubry, the former first secretary of the Socialist Party of France... (wikipedia)

Fundamentally, American society is composed of individuals who don't go out of their way to do each other favours.
For me, socialism has always been about liberty and solidarity, but also about responsibility.
The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare, no matter what happens to the world, that's not equity, it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.
I would not be opposed to devising a new system of pensions, in which one part was based on collective provision, but which also gave incentives for people to take out an additional, personal plan.
This desire for equity must not lead to an excess of welfare, where nobody is responsible for anything.