It wasn't predicting the future by crystal ball, it was making a pretty easy educated guess about the future given the pretty clear population demographics available to anyone who bothered to look. Making the "prediction" made by the politicians in question that the tax base would increase to the levels needed to sustain the pensions is akin to looking at [Redacted]'s recent records and "predicting" that he is going to make the Final Four in the near future, and then betting the entire AD budget on that prediction. It was completely out of whack with reality. Again, almost every successful private entity reached the same conclusion decades ago.
Hell, the business profs at Wake were preaching this in the mid-90s; here we are almost 20 years later having seen it play out exactly as forecasted, and people still act like it is a surprise.
Please 2&2, don't hurt him.