It’s ironic that Detroit government workers and pensioners, on the one-year anniversary of the Motor City’s bankruptcy, have voted to cut their own pensions. Their vote is part of a “grand bargain” bankruptcy restructuring that seeks private, philanthropic and state funds to help avoid massive cuts in government pensions. The bargain reduces Detroit’s debt by...

The problem Opponents of pension reform at the state and local level often argue that the average government-worker pension is modest. In a May 2011 commentary, government union chiefs Ken Swanson and Henry Bayer wrote that “at the end of a working life devoted to public service, an Illinois teacher, firefighter or librarian retires with...