patrick.net

The most recent estimate for the difference between the net present value of federal government liabilities and the net present value of future federal revenues is $200 trillion, nearly 13 times the debt as stated by the US Treasury. Notice that these figures, too, are incomplete, since they omit the unfunded liabilities of state and local governments, which are estimated to be around $38 trillion.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9338997/Reith-Lecture-Were-mortgaging-the-future-of-the-younger-generation.html

I know it's popular to bash on civil servants these days, but imagine if you were in that scenario where you worked a job for 30 years based on the assumption that you would get $X a month when you retire. Then suddenly, you have that amount halved or more because your state/county/municipality failed to allocate funds to properly maintain the pension. WTF are you supposed to do?

And where does it end? I halfway expect that all those Roth IRA contributions I've been making with the assumption of "tax-free" withdrawals at retirement will suddenly be levied with a 50% tax at withdrawal for some reason or another. Retirement planning is freaking me out a bit, as all I can do is throw tons of money in various buckets hoping that it will all work out...