" As bad as that sounds, the problem of state and local government pensions is even worse. Public pensions, which are paid by taxpayers and thus enjoy an implicit form of insurance, are underfunded by a total of at least $300 billion and arguably much more. While governments have been winking at these deficits for years, they are now becoming intolerable burdens for taxpayers. In San Diego, pension abuse has effectively bankrupted the city. Thanks to a history of granting sweeter and sweeter pension deals that it has neglected to fund, the city has been forced to allocate $160 million, or 8 percent of the municipal budget, to the San Diego City Employees Retirement System this year, with similar allocations expected for years to come. San Diego has tabled plans for a downtown library, cut back the hours on swimming pools, gutted the parks and recreation budget, canceled needed water and sewer projects and fallen behind on potholes." (NYTimes)

This NYT article examines the current and impending pension crisis looming over America. This pension problem however will not be limited to the US; a lot of European countries is battling the same issue worsened by the imbalance of demographic percentage between the productive age population and pensioners.

30 or so years from now, by the time our generation reach retirement age, the pension system as we have it right now might have gone bankrupt. It won't be pretty when it does.