The whole idea of a lifetime pension is ridiculous.
No one can afford to pay all its former employees a salary for the rest of their lives and still be expected to stay financially solvent competing against entities with no such obligations.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say “can’t afford”. It depends on who runs and how they run the plans, frankly. All too often, graft, greed, corruption and misuse of these plans are what causes them to fail.
Ultimately the operators of these plan fall back on the public as the guarantor of the commitment and throw caution to the wind and bathe in the excesses made affordable in their ‘management’.
In truth, the managers of the plans in question should be subject to the same travails as the elite of 1799 France.
One of the best policy moves that could be made is the prohibition of defined benefit pension plans - they are extremely attractive as voter bait for those who negotiate them (such as teachers and municipal employees), but are ultimately deceptive and dishonest since they depend on the fiscal viability of government unit in question (and we know how that’s working out).
Only defined contribution plans should be allowed.
However, that whole policy change would be discouraged by the example from the very top - Social Security - the ultimate unsustainable defined benefit plan (and perhaps the ultimate misnomer).
Veterans weigh in?
An acquaintance retired as a cop in town at 46; he had 25 years in, and will ride the gravy train for decades to come.