A good read. I found this part particularly interesting:
Over time, enriched retirement formulas have allowed employees to retire at ever-earlier ages. Many non-safety employees may now retire at age 55, and many safety employees may retire at age 50, with full retirement benefits. As a consequence, employers have been required to pay for benefits over longer and longer periods of time.
The retirement age for non-safety workers in 1932, when the state created its retirement system, was 65. The retirement age for a state highway patrol officer in 1935 was 60. The life expectancy of a twenty-year old who began working at that time was mid-to-late 60s, meaning that life expectancy beyond retirement was a relatively short period of time. Now with a growing life expectancy, pensions will pay out not just for a few years, but for several decades, requiring public employers to pay pension benefits over much longer periods of time.
One outrageous aspect of this situation is that while public employees make up 15% of the population, it’s only a fraction of public employees that are causing this crisis. Federal pensions are not a serious problem, nor are the recently-hired state and municipal employees.
There is really only one generation of employees – a small minority of the workforce – that is devastating our schools and services. 95% of the population is paying for the comfortable retirements of the other 5%. This “upper 5%” will typically spend a third of their adult lives getting paid for not working while schools and the remaining workforce pick up the tab.
Governor Brown’s plan is now supported by Republican members of the legislature. Polls show the public also supports the plan. The Democrats in Sacramento, however, are still in the back pockets of the unions. It will be interesting to see how deeply the holdouts dig in their heels.[/quote]
Most of the growth in life expectancy over the past 50+ years came from lower infant/maternal mortality rates and lower death rates at younger ages (mostly due to antibiotics, vaccines, and fewer work accidents/more regulations). The net increase in life expectancy for those who reach 65 was about 2-3 years, IIRC.
