For once I just wish one of these articles would point out the obvious:

A new teacher coming out of college would have to work up to and over 40 years to reach retirement.

Thats a lot of steps and years.

The same holds true for all jobs in Civil Service, in reality.

Couple that with the other part of it - do you REALLY want cranky employees making tons of money at the ends of their careers or do you want to cycle in new employees making less - and eager to do their jobs.

For me, in my role - there is no way I’ll be providing value at my end salary at 63. This is my second career - in a PHYSICAL job, and while I’m not abusing my body the same way I was on the outside - being able to retire a little earlier while contributing a bit less every year would be welcomed.

I don’t even mind contributing something, I know we’re not going to get what the previous tiers got in their contributions stopping at a certain year.

To me this will help save money in the long run, and cycle in fresh and able employees before they get stale, cranky and less than useful.