Life ain't fair. With whatever we do in life that argument can be used: the pensioners at Enron got equally shafted when the company went down the plug hole - and they were doing what good little workers do (saving for the future).

To wait for the ideal time to do something is to never do anything. Does one buy a house now, or wait for the housing market to crash - ow maybe it won't crash... Marry now, but a "better" partner might be around the next corner, get this job, but the next interview might be along tomorrow...

Possibly saying they "never bothered to learn" was OTT, but I believe I am right that they have one hell of a lot of free time in their day, as they don't work. I imagine that the messages were not that clear, but the fact they've not secured the roof over their heads implies they did not try to ascertain what to do very hard. The majority managed it, unless they are completely isolated asking their neighbours would statitically get one who did know the score, and then surely the message would spread.