The sad fact is that we are stuck with the retirement plans for those people close to retirement. For the others, they need to be converted to defined contribution plans.

However, all those cops and firefighters in the cities and counties that 40 years old looking at a retirement plan of 50, are going to give it up nor do I see the courts forcing them to give it up. The only option is to cash them out, which will result in such outrageous payouts that the individual members of the union are shamed into accepting something reasonable. I don’t see it happening. They have built their plans around a retirement plan and no segment of our government has the stamina to do it.

Everybody pretends it’s not the case, but history has spoken. The actuarial tables, live expectancy, and volatility in returns makes it unmanageable to make promises to pay something thirty years in the future for 20, 30 or 40 years. For the safety workers with retire at 50 plans (there are some), they are literally looking at close to 40 years of retirement benefits that are cost of living adjusted.