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Under a proposal announced April 15, Detroits emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, agreed to pay retired city police officers and firefighters their full monthly pensions. Hours later, the pension system for general employees, such as city hall clerks and street workers, said it, too, had settled.

Christie has attacked employee benefits, saying that 50 percent of all new spending in his latest budget goes to pay for pensions, 30 percent pays for debt and 14 percent pays for health benefits.

Will our retirement system create the message to new workers that working for the man, whether hes in the private or public sector, is a losing proposition?

Under the plan, workers at companies that have more than 25 employees and that do not offer a retirement plan could participate in one.

General employees pensions would shrink by 4.5 percent while police and fire employees would see no reduction in their monthly pensions and have their cost-of-living adjustments capped at 1 percent.

The deal struck last week is a sign of progress in negotiations to exit bankruptcy and would shift 26 percent of $388 million in claimed liabilities to pensions and to overdue payments on debt.

Public pension plans now have just $3 trillion to invest to be able to pay out future benefits of $10 trillion over the next decades.

Employers are trying out all kinds of approaches to better manage retiree health costs, though the day will eventually come when just a handful will offer such benefits to the over-65 set.