Several politicians have tried here in New Zealand but there is huge incentive for politicians to play on peoples short sighted greed and selfishness and cancel longer term solutions when governments changes that has happened repeatedly here in NZ over the last 50 plus years. The original universal pension was introduced by a populist politician who scrapped a program (similar to your 501 scheme I believe) which would have given everyone a retirement fund built up over their working life. Many times since any attempt to change the system to something more sustainable has been reversed by populist backlash and revisions.