I know very few people who have or will have pensions and post-retirement benefits. It seems that most people must rely instead on investment accounts, 401(k) plans, insurance plans, and Social Security for their well-beings in their post-career lives.

Likewise, many who were at the time fortunate enough to be granted pensions – like those who are former or current Harrison/Delphi employees – now find themselves suddenly leading stressful lives. It appears they were dealt plenty of broken promises and the future of their finances are a huge unknown due to Delphi’s bankruptcy games and the lack of retirement funding.

With all of these cases it can be assumed that pensions as a whole are too burdensome on businesses. It has been said that pensioned businesses add to the cost of each currently-employed worker the cost to support one maybe even two long-retired workers and their benefits.

These incredible legacy costs can either manifest themselves in higher product prices or lower profits. Due to the demands of customers and their spending habits, the former is, in most cases, not attainable. Hence, most companies, rather than facing financial ruin, have vacated the pension business and have opted for alternative retirement funding - such as 401(k)’s - where both the company and the employee have a vested interest in the future of the employee and essentially the future of the company.

The business climate has changed so much to reflect this understanding that now only 20% of all private sector employees participate in pension benefit programs. Economists say that within the next decade this number will probably reach something nearly negligible, maybe even "zero", as the last bastions of pension employers – the so-called American auto industry – get out of such practices.

While businesses and their employees have adapted to the economic constraints of pensions, the public sector has not accepted similar logic. While private sector employees lose out on retirement security and essentially suffer, lawmakers and government workers alike continue to reap the rewards of pensions. Nearly all federal employees receive pension benefits as do some 90% of all local and state employees.

Governments have willingly chosen not to follow the lead of the private sector and have done virtually nothing to pare their costs. Actually, governments have gone in a completely opposite direction. During the period of 2002 through 2004, the burden of pensions placed upon New York taxpayers increased by $3 billion. In 2005 alone, the legislature passed nearly 50 bills that increased pension benefits to the tune of $100 million per annum. Just last month, the legislature signed into law nearly two-dozen like-minded bills with a monetary impact that will exceed 2005’s snafu.

This abuse of taxpayers can best be exemplified by outgoing assemblyman Paul Tokasz’s golden parachute. As a lawmaker he was voted into power to save money and cut taxes. As one of New York’s most powerful assemblymen he had the power to influence many lawmakers towards those ends, but he didn’t. His record, like that with many if not most lawmakers, was heavy towards the expansion of pensions. In a conflict of interests, lawmakers are allowed to write the bills that define their pensions and, therefore, would essentially be looking out for themselves and not the common good.

The reward? A local media outlet has stated that Tokasz’s pension will be in excess of $60,000 per year.

This is a perfect symbol of the problem with public pensions: Governments, with a captive audience (taxpayers), can, unlike businesses, increase the cost of services rendered to cover their legacy costs. By simply increasing taxes they can meet these massive costs.

The State Constitution promotes this, indicating pension benefits can be neither diminished nor impaired for those employed or retired. This more or less implies that substantial reform is illegal.

So, while most taxpayers have made concessions in their personal lives as the logic of pensions has changed, those who live off our taxes have not. Sadly, there is no end in sight to this abuse: We have empowered the government to make poor business decisions and they will continue to do so because it ultimately proves to be self-serving.