undefined | Better HN

0 pointsthrowaway57526y ago0 comments

No, just anecdote from my own lifetime and observations. I would just say the 2nd paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legacy_costs is essentially the same thing I'm talking about.

0 comments

dredmorbius6y ago

Thanks. The cited Lincoln Institute of Land Policy study also addresses this directly: "Pension Legacy Costs and Local government Finances"

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/pension... (PDF)

The similarity (referenced by the Wikipedia article) to technical debt was what I'd been thinking. More generally, markets and social-political systems have trouble recognising long-term risks and liabilities generally.

Both are forms of debt.

See also Adam Smith's growing vs. declining nations discussion in Wealth of Nations.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse