Who needs a pension when dogfood will do?

The reward for working 35 years at a modestly paying job in the public sector has long been security and the promise of a pension that nearly equaled and occasionally exceeded what a worker was receiving when he accepted his gold watch. And in most cases, these pension promises were indexed for inflation so they'd grow as the worker aged.

These pension liabilities don't have to be accounted for like they are in the corporate world. No putting on the balance sheet what actuaries believe the municipalities, school boards, etc., will need to meet these pension obligations so that taxpayers can understand what they've committed to and workers can judge the odds that they'll get what they're owed.