Most of you make valid points, but everyone is making this way more difficult then they should. I am a CFP and here are the two reasons pensions are unsustainable today:

1. In order to get about $50,000 per year over a 30 year retirement, you would need about $1million to support that income stream. That may even be pushing it in a world of extremely low rates. Therefore, consider higher pensions of $100k or $150k per year, and you need at least a couple million to support that

2. People are living longer. 40 years ago the life expectancy was much shorter. Now, if someone retires at 60 they could very easily be getting a pension for 30 years, almost as long as they worked. That wasn't factored when these plans started.

Keep it simple: people who have pensions are fortunate, yes they paid into them and planned their lives around them, therefore fix the issue by ensuring new employees have the risk, such as 401ks, 403bs, and 457s....which they are now trying to do. But public sector pensions are often supported by big voting groups........that's why people are starting to hate each other