Some Public Sector sanity

Came across this today.  I've never been a big Joe Klein fan, but I think he hits on something important here:

The fact is, that the rules governing the hiring and retaining of public employees are vestiges of another era--an era when government had to provide some perks to compete with higher-paying manufacturing jobs. Those perks usually involved job security and generous pension packages. I met a fellow the other day who had just retired from his state's corrections system at the age of 47, after 20 years of service as a prison guard. He was getting a full pension and working full-time on top of that as a mechanic. I don't begrudge him his double-income; he played according to the rules and he deserves it. But I do question the rules.

Read the whole thing and let's talk about the future because we can't keep going on like this.