Years ago, when my family went to a popular Mexican restaurant, my young son started reaching for a raw habanero pepper. I told him not to put it in his mouth but, in a typical act of offspring defiance, he started chewing on it. Suffice it to say, he never did that again. If an 8-year-old can learn from his mistakes, why can’t legislators? Two bills relating to public employee pension benefits illustrate the point. In the 1990s, on the heels of winning the Cold War and so-called “peace dividend,” the economy was roaring. The California Public Employees’ Retirement System...