After this year I don't really care about the fairness of the tax code since we will be pulling up to the trough.
But anyway, here is a possible example:
State/Federal civil engineer, making $70,000 a year, pays 5% of their salary into a pension fund, employer pays 15% (the figures are all over the place, some pay only a couple percent). After 30 years they are eligible for a COLA'd pension of $45,000 per year, which is worth near $1,000,000 if purchased as an annuity from a private insurance company.
Private sector engineer, makes $90,000 a year doing the same work, no pension. Pays 40% tax (SS + federal + medicare + state) on that extra $20,000, taking home only $12,000 of it.
For 30 years he puts that $12,000 in a conservative investment so he can be guaranteed to be able to buy an annuity. He will have nowhere near enough to buy a COLA'd $45,000 annuity. Part of this is because he was heavily taxed and the other person was not, even though they essentially had the same spending money after setting aside retirement.