I guess he saw at least a hundred years into the future. Today’s population is so dependent on pensions they can’t even comprehend that the ponzi will eventually blow up and they will end up broke and miserable when they least expect it.
"Bismark in the 1880s created compulsory insurance for accident, health, disability, and age (pensions). He called them “state socialism” and explained that all measures were socialist, and the state had to adapt to a little more socialism. What he wanted was to make the workers more dependent on the state and on him, that is, to have a dependent population under the ideology of national collectivism. The idea was that it would generate dependence and loyalty, which the German government needed to dominate Europe."
The Cultural Consequences of the Welfare State
https://mises.org/mises-wire/cultural-consequences-welfare-state
Discussion
I had a discussion recently with German LinkedIn about a project that the Minister of Labor wants to push through. Namely, that even more groups that were previously excluded should pay into the social security fund.
People here are now so dependent on and accustomed to the idea of a welfare state that they can't imagine any other reality. And without realizing that this actually subsidizes certain private sectors, such as the energy industry and general wages, which should have long since disappeared from a free market. Well, it won't last much longer. The system is eating itself.
And people don’t realise that they work 3-4 months per year just to pay for current pensioners expenses because they expect that the next generations will pick up from the same place. They won’t. The rugpull will be epic. I’ve come to terms with that, but they don’t even know it’s coming.