A Defined Benefit scheme is an unbounded promise on future shareholders.

It says "no matter how long you live, we will pay you so much money each and every month".

This was bad enough when the average worker retired at 60 or 65 and died before they were 75, so it was a ten- to fifteen-year promise. Now as the average life expectancy for a white-collar white male slides up towards the low eighties, it's a promise to pay for twenty years or more.

Bah, humbug