| No, the incentives of taxpayer funded defined benefit pensions (lifelong annuities for worker and spouse) are unsustainable. Problem 1 is the inability to forecast 30 years into the future, problem 2 is the people whose money is being spent (future taxpayers) aren't in the decision making process. Problem 3 is low voter turnout among non government employee populations, so politicians do whatever they have to make sure government employee unions vote for them. Problem 4 is no requirement to actually provide accurate funding, because the costs will be understated in the first place (see problem 3), and the liabilities are far into the future so money will be diverted for other pressing matters. If you think the above is not correct, all you need to do is look at the funding status for all the taxpayer funded pensions in the US, conveniently exempt from the rules that privately funded pensions have to adhere to (which made them disappear because it turns out they're too costly). However, as long as the US can print money (I.e. have a powerful military), then they can inflate away all these debts the taxpayers have so just try to make sure your assets are inflation resistant, preferably in high cash flow businesses with barriers to entry that can sustain price increases. |