almost noone here in the States in private employment get defined pensions anymore (as newly hired employees anyway, as opposed to older employees grandfathered under old plans).
why should I pay for govt employees to have better retirement than I will ever have? Its like paying for
other peoples kid’s to go to college...
I’m not saying you should, I just want to compare with here. The previous conservative government closed off the old defined pension scheme a few years ago and all new gov workers go on a scheme similar to your 401k (as are pretty much all working Aussies). They then used their budget surpluses to build up a future fund to pay the old federal workers pensions so that future taxpayers don’t get slugged with the cost.
Even in the old defined system fed workers still had to pay at least 5% (up to a max of 10%) of their pre-tax income into their pension fund.
That's absolutely true! And they are also not going to provide healthcare benefits to new hires following their retirement......