Unchanged, those retirement systems could eventually stop paying entirely.

“One way or another, if we don’t make changes, the government will collapse,” said Abel Stewart, of Toledo, Ohio.

Stewart, 36, the director of contemporary worship at a Methodist church in suburban Toledo, says he has a hard time conjuring up sympathy for the government workers he’s seen protesting because of all the time he’s spent working with struggling immigrants.

“These are middle class people who have a house, who have enough food, who are complaining they don’t have enough,” he said. “Instead of fighting for their piece of the political pie, they’d be better looking at how to live within their means.”

That’s not a unanimous view.

Tony Christoff, a 38-year-old stay-at-home dad in Perrysburg, Ohio, believes public workers like police officers and teachers — including his wife — should be rewarded. “They go over and above and deserve the pay they get,” he said.

Jeff Nash is a Democrat elected to the county freeholder board in union-heavy Camden County, N.J., who has come to believe that public employees need to sacrifice.