Growing populations help mask the underlying issues with pensions, which are mainly, 1) they are almost always underfunded, and 2) they have unrealistic expecta

Growing populations help mask the underlying issues with pensions, which are mainly, 1) they are almost always underfunded, and 2) they have unrealistic expectations for growth. I doubt we will every see pensions come back because they become less appealing the more realistic they have to be. Of course pensions sound awesome if you're a firefighter that receives $97,000 a year for life after 25 years of service. Such a person may have received only $1.7MM in total compensation over 25 years, yet, because of how public pensions are calculated (and a bit of graft), they earn an income that would take investments worth $2.4MM to maintain. This is not including health insurance, which is likely another significant amount. When I take the same firefighter's wages over the years, and calculate the return of a 12% of earnings contribution annually, and a 12% annual return on investments, that same person has only contributed a little over $1MM. Meaning their sustainable pension withdraw is roughly $41,000/yr. \* I made these numbers up in an excel spreadsheet, assuming they made $38k in 95 with a 3% raise each year, and a 10% promotion raise every 10 years, along with the typical inflated wages in the last 3 years to maximize pension benefits. So they ended making $107k/yr. Edit: After some playing around, I've determined that pension contributions would need to be roughly 30% of wages in order to be properly funded with a 12% annual return. Using S&P500 rates of return, contributions need to be closer to 50% of wages.