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For millennia human beings worked until they dropped. Then in the late 19th century, Otto von Bismarck started the first state pension in Germany. The idea caught on. By the 20th century, advances in medicine meant that many more people were surviving childhood and living longer and longer into old age. This was great news for those individuals but not such good news for governments and companies who found themselves having to fund ever-longer retirements. In this excerpt from The Inquiry David Blake, director of the Pensions Institute at Cass Business School in London, says retirement might soon be a thing of the past. (Photo: Clayton Fackler, 72, works at the check out at a supermarket in Ohio. Credit: J.D. Pooley/Getty Images)