they BLOWED UP them pensions MIGHTY fine those last 20 years or so..............not just in the Car INDUSTRY!!!......public pension are massive albatrosses around nearly every States neck........
teachers and cops retiring in their mid 50's with 6 figure ($100,000 plus ) pensions.................somethings gotta "GIVE" 
..the other taxpayers 
.............the UAW is starting their usual B/S about "negotiating".........read the Autoextremist site...........
Which teachers and cops? none that I know in Ontario will be getting six figures.
Very much doubt that it will be $100k+ for the rank and file.
That said, the mid 50s retirement age thing is a big problem. Think about it. Start working around 25 give or take a year, work until 55 (this is the usual "85 factor" thing, age + years of service = 85 --> full pension), live until 80+. Spouse lives another 5. So that's 30 years of work for 30 years of retirement payments? Thats an absurd rate of return.
Very rough calculation, speaking in real dollars, lets say so and so starts off today at
$45k $40k, gets a raise of $1k per year in real terms. Pension amount is 50% of last 5 years (I think most pensions are probably higher, but lets run with it). Works from 25 to 55 and then lives until 85. Contribution rate is 10% of gross per year. All in real dollars. Pension would be in this case $33,500/yr real.
Thats an IRR of 6.6%. In real terms. Supposedly "guaranteed and risk free". Good luck with that.
Notes
1. You might say, well suppose this person only lives to 75. IRR is 5.96% real. Not that much less (PV of those last 10 payments is rather small compared to the first 20).
2. It gets worse if you add stuff in like CPP top ups for 55-65, etc etc. Also I think I might have been conservative (with respect to making my point) on the contribution rate and payout amount assumptions, though I'm not actually super familiar with the terms of all of these pensions, not even my own haha. If you use an 8% contribution rate and 67% of last 5 year average payout then the IRR is a whopping 8.55% real to age 85.
3. If you want to make things more sustainable, go with a 65 retirement age and 10% contribution, 50% of last 5 years, even though the annual pension is larger the IRR is about 4.14% (to age 85) and 4.79% (to age 95). Considerably more sustainable although still really high. Hardly a risk free asset.
