Those of us in private industry must work until age 62 before receiving our "entitlement".
While some Government programs provide retirement payments after a specific length of service such as 20 years. This permits the retiree to enter into another career and build up another entitlement.
Assuming a Government retiree can start collecting at 41, and comparing this to a person who has to wait until 62 while assuming they both die at age 80, with a monthly entitlement of $ 1500.:
The Government employee will have received 468 payments for a total of $ 702,000.00, while the private industry employee will have collected only $ 324,000.00. In addition the private industry employee will have contributed to his retirement plan for 21 years more than the government retiree.