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When Gertrude Janeway died in 2003, she was still getting a monthly cheque for $70 from the Veterans Administration—for a military pension earned by her late husband, John, on the Union side of the American civil war that ended in 1865. The pair had married in 1927, when he was 81 and she was 18. The amount may have been modest but the entitlement spanned three centuries.
— A pension promise can be easy to make but expensive to keep. Our special report explains why governments are in such hot water. (via theeconomist)
Reblogged from NPR
