The ponzi bomb under the city walls

Strong Towns did a better description of "The Growth Ponzi Scheme" at https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/8/28/the-growth-pon...

The Strong Towns essay does not place the blame on public sector unions, but on how cities funded growth that did not pay for itself.

The Strong Towns essay points out that smaller cities and towns also have a "Ponzi bomb" - it's not limited to big cities, which is all this essay considers.

And it doesn't repeat the misleading observation "these pension ideas were put into practice when life expectancy was 65. now it’s in the 80’s. that’s an awful lot more years of defined benefit payout.".

Why misleading? Because 1) that's life expectancy at birth, when the relevant number is the number of people who live and work until retirement, 2) the actuaries of the 1900s weren't fools - they included the increasing lifespan in their calculations, and 3) there's been decades to adjust any mistakes made then.

> consider chicago.

The city which could have made an extra $100 million/year if it hadn't sold its street parking. Are we going to blame pensions for that too?