Mostly agree, but not all pensions were "pie in the sky". Much of the blame is on the bureaucrats and politicians who underfunded the pension funds and the corrupt unions who effective sabotaged them by allowing spiking and concurrent disability, allowing folks to sell back vacation and sick time, work massive overtime, double dipping, and get fake promotions for their final year to end up getting 50%-100% more than they should.
Defined benefit (pension) plans need to die, for everyone. Convert them all to defined contribution, aka 401K.
Virginia was smart. They started charging us for our pension and not just a little. They also created a hybrid-pension plan that appealed to younger workers. Thankfully, I came to the game late and I have a 401k set up for retirement.