Upon more examination, this proposal is not as major as it first appeared. The big changes would apply to future hires, not current lucky employees. So it will do nothing immediately to stop the bleeding and likely implosion of the system, especially since there will be little new hiring given our new austerity. Someone likened it to putting a surcharge on Titanic passengers in order to hire more iceberg spotters.
What’s needed is to cut existing benefits, which may be legally impossible since unions can rightly argue they are a contract. And, in fairness, employees have built their personal finances around the expectation of a certain pension.
