CA renter, there is a lot in your post I agree with, especially our tendency to make decisions based only on short run considerations while ignoring the long term impact. “Short-termism” prompts bad behavior at the personal level (instant gratification, buying on credit, addictions, diet), and in politics. The choice by Republican and Democrat city council members a decade ago to massively increase pension benefits gained them momentary popularity with the far-thinking union members. The public, and most of the economists and accountants who slept on the job, ignored the long-run costs we are now about to pay.
Likewise our state politicians, of whatever stripe, are famous for budgetary ledgerdermain, annually kicking the can into the future. Their tricks to postpone or hide costs and accelerate revenue collections are legendary, and make us the butt of jokes.
You have correctly pointed to some of the remedies for these past decisions, and they will be painful and costly because we have been slow to wake up to short-termism. Better late than never.
