We have made promises to our future selves, but haven't prepared for it. There is still time, and we should.

This was the theme of my conversation with Dr Nina Su on her podcast Revolving Door Syndrome. You can listen on Spotify or Apple.

She was a lot of fun to talk to. We traversed a wide range of issues, but the key theme was how to find enough agreement to do the right things for NZ.

Sometimes it will take sacrifices today for benefits later. The chart below shows that on current trends, super and health will eat up all taxes on work in the next two decades. That isn’t politically tenable.

I wrote on this theme back in 2016.

Young voters feel as though they are being screwed over by the older generation. The older lot are enjoying universal health and superannuation, got to live in their own homes and most were better off than their parents. But most of these will not be their reality.

Older voters believe they are entitled to superannuation, health and other public spending – as they were promised these benefits and they paid into the tax system for that promise. (Although never enough to save for the future.)

Our political system is not well set up to trade off near versus far off decisions. We want to pay less tax, have small government and have more government services. It is an impossible list of demands.

This list of demands exists in an inexact social contract. There is a vague feeling that there is a social contract or pact between all New Zealanders. But what that pact is and what it means for intergenerational equity, or equity more broadly, is not understood.

A report for BusinessNZ by Rosie Collins (PDF) unpacked a lot of this, for the beginnings of a way forward.

And part of that is having unfiltered conversations about things that matter to NZ, including future generations. Like the chat with Nina.