Since the comments in this thread are missing historical context, here's a review wrt California: 1) the State Treasurer presented 3 options (low - 6%, middle

Since the comments in this thread are missing historical context, here's a review wrt California: 1) the State Treasurer presented 3 options (low - 6%, middle - 7%, high - 8%), but said high was dangerous 2) the State picked high, since they were voting on their own pension payments 3) the municipal unions went to the mayoral candidates across the state and said, "if you want our support on election day, support 8%" 4) the courts have ruled that once a pension plan is approved, it can't be repealed for existing members 5) the San Jose mayor actually tried to repeal it to prevent city bankruptcy, and was ground into the dust by the public unions and courts 6) the last city employee in each city will be the Treasurer, to sign pension checks. There will be no city services (fire, police, libraries, etc.) - just pension payments. This is already happening in California 7) Public union members receive higher salaries now (thanks to COLA) than the private sector, plus multi-million dollar pensions. My dentist calls them "royalty" because their benefits are on a different level than the private sector. What's ironic is that Marx predicted that in a democracy, the voters would eventually vote themselves ruinous entitlements. He was correct, but all it took was the public unions.