We’ve had this conversation in another thread, but I’ll summarize again for anyone who is confused about how pensions work and why you can’t just look up their liabilities.
It is a debt, but it is not a debt to pay people back what they paid in, it is a debt to pay them what they are owed under the plan. Because of the nature of the plan a person might be paid more or less based on things currently unknown (e.g., if they die in an accident before they collect anything, they get paid $0, if they live to 112 they get paid plenty). That’s why liabilities are estimated by actuaries rather than known precisely. It’s more like a bookie than a bond.
Pension plans, public and private, are in big trouble because they are Ponzi schemes. The fact that, like any Ponzi scheme, they need an ever growing pool of investors to stay afloat was public knowledge from day one. But there is nothing being hidden or kept on separate books, publicly available actuarial reports that tell you exactly how much trouble they are in are a google search away. Everyone is welcome to look at the problems in the open air, and it’s easy to find people who are.
You may take issue with the fact that the government is allowed to pass a law that says, “Thou shalt pay $X into a pension plan but may never see a penny back,” but they have just as much power to pass that law as they do to pass a law that says, “Thou shalt pay $X in taxes and we will use those to fund the police even if you aren’t the victim of a crime.”
