Tying it to life expectency wasn't that novel, British statistians had been working on actuarial tables for two centuries before Bismark because a derivatives market had been created in them for annuities.

I think it's also not that stupid. The big revolution was making pension funding outside of the state so advantageous in tax terms, that people now park multiples beyond their life expectancies into them. I may struggle to empty mine, meanwhile many in the current workforce feel they may never get to retire.

It's badly out of whack.