[marktwain]

They had access to actuarial tables, financial experts and world-class corporate planners to match their scope of business.

The States have all that and more, and tend to do worse than private companies.

The big problem, of course, is the promises come due after the people who made them are all dead.

[1Old Pro]

The big problem, of course, is the promises come due after the people who made them are all dead.

The problem is that when politics is involved, calculations are corrupted. And politics is/was involved in the private sector all along as they adjusted to political regulations which are impossible to plan for.