>> A pension is a deliberate inefficiency in a labor market. It's a promise to pay someone for not working...
That's and extreme simplification of pension and probably the worst definition You can think of. I guess if You were a marxist as opposed to some form of capitalist/liberal I would expect that You would base Your definition on class struggle.
I much more prefer to think about pension as a form of insurance against the risk of getting old. And as such the free market "implementation" is only one of possibilities (for ex. here in Poland we have state pension with a bit of free markets sprinkled on top). I personally believe that "old age insurance" is one of flag inventions of our times and do not think that there is a place for free for all solutions in civilized society (we are in this together and should work out a way to protect the weakest).
>> It is also a central lever for people to look to profit on through managent, and a tool with which to overinflate demand for financial products.
That's an implementation detail in my view - if You look at it from insurance perspective, You just need to search for a way to redistribute effects of current work between workers and retires. And using financial products (stocks and derivatives) may just be a wrong tool for the job.
That's and extreme simplification of pension and probably the worst definition You can think of. I guess if You were a marxist as opposed to some form of capitalist/liberal I would expect that You would base Your definition on class struggle. I much more prefer to think about pension as a form of insurance against the risk of getting old. And as such the free market "implementation" is only one of possibilities (for ex. here in Poland we have state pension with a bit of free markets sprinkled on top). I personally believe that "old age insurance" is one of flag inventions of our times and do not think that there is a place for free for all solutions in civilized society (we are in this together and should work out a way to protect the weakest).
>> It is also a central lever for people to look to profit on through managent, and a tool with which to overinflate demand for financial products.
That's an implementation detail in my view - if You look at it from insurance perspective, You just need to search for a way to redistribute effects of current work between workers and retires. And using financial products (stocks and derivatives) may just be a wrong tool for the job.