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LOL I am reading your last paragraph and wholeheartedly agree, and at the same time wondering if you're saying to yourself "yeah now that I read it over, I hear it." These are guys that make up pedophilia and cannibalism rings operating in the basements of buildings with no basement.I’m a pension actuary myself - I’ve heard that joke numerous times (pension people tend to fall in that “extroverted” category as they need to be consultants). The translating from actuarial nerd speak to real human being language is the toughest part of my job! I felt comfortable bringing up the NFL and MLB pension since neither I nor my company work for either of them, but I do feel very comfortable with the thought process that was used to set those assumptions.
Not to get too far off topic, but to your point on the conspiracy theories, there would need to be a significant number of entities involved to pull that off - from the companies themselves to the actuaries and their firms, to the actuarial profession itself, to the audit firms, and then finally the government itself. Way too many areas for a potential breakdown, which should hopefully put a kibosh on those theories!
But were they burdened by the old-school "germ of truth" requirement, I just think they could do better picking on "social insurance" and promoting pension envy. It's also right in line with most of their politics.
Of course reason and fact are the sworn enemies of speculation, and vice versa. Of course conspiracies requiring thousands to act in concert with perfect silence and discipline are inherently laughable... although the profession does itself no favors with terms like "longevity risk!"