Convince me, as someone that wasn't even alive when these pensions were being granted, why I should pay for gold-plated pension plans far above and beyond what I'm expecting to get in my own retirement when I'm seeing less and less value from the services those would-be pensioners provide and in general contribute significantly less "value" to society than the work I do.

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Note that I'm not as anarchist or libertarian as the above makes me sound, but it does emphasize the point I'm trying to make: I don't think you'll ever convince the current generation to pay for the previous one so I don't think there will ever be a collective willingness to pay "moderately higher" taxes. My bet is on an ugly outcome where the old and young battle it out in the courts between haircuts to pension plans and higher taxes with politicians muddling their way to an ugly middle ground that no one likes.