Pension Guarantees Hide Democratic Incoherence

Some legally binding pension rules (for example, the UK 'triple lock') structurally boost retiree incomes even when wages and inflation fall, shifting fiscal pain to other groups. This creates a political equilibrium where voters can demand incompatible outcomes—generous pensions and robust worker services—because individual votes face no price for preference incoherence. — Recognizing this dynamic reframes many fiscal debates as problems of preference‑aggregation and institutional design, not merely partisan theft or fraud.