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The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

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Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#151

Post by triceratops »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #43
ungreased0675 wrote: post #4

Term limits would fix it

Term limits are perhaps the dumbest idea that ever plagued democracy. The idea of mandatory firing your most qualified, experienced employees in an incredibly difficult job that can only be learned with on-the-job experience is literally insane. If not for term limits, the US would have had Obama in the presidency this entire time instead of the absolute garbage scraps that were left over when they fired the only per…

> If not for term limits, the US would have had Obama in the presidency this entire time

I like Obama as much as anyone else. But that would've been bad for democracy. Not to mention the man himself. He looked absolutely shattered by the end of his second term. Executives need term limits. And possibly judges too; albeit much longer terms than the legislatures or executives that appoint them.

I agree with you that term limits for legislators are a dumb idea.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#152

Post by triceratops »

derriz wrote: post #127
applfanboysbgon wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Term limits are perhaps the dumbest idea that ever plagued democracy. The idea of mandatory firing your most qualified, experienced employees in an incredibly difficult job that can only be learned with on-the-job experience is literally insane. If not for term limits, the US would have had Obama in the presidency this entire time instead of the absolute garbage scraps that were left over when they fired the only per…

Term limits encourage the development of robust laws, systems and institutions which provide a far more stable basis for running a society than having power structures that rely on the brilliance of an individual or individuals. Without terms limits or the like (and there are countless examples not just in history but currently around the world), individuals in power are motivated mostly to preserve that power and ha…

With term limits individuals in power are motivated to pass laws that help them find their next job.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#153

Post by triceratops »

estimator7292 wrote: post #112
applfanboysbgon wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Term limits are perhaps the dumbest idea that ever plagued democracy. The idea of mandatory firing your most qualified, experienced employees in an incredibly difficult job that can only be learned with on-the-job experience is literally insane. If not for term limits, the US would have had Obama in the presidency this entire time instead of the absolute garbage scraps that were left over when they fired the only per…

How else would you deal with people who are too old to do the job, and too senile to realize they can no longer perform and should abdicate? Because we have politicians who can barely walk and talk on their own they're so goddamn old. These aren't the best and brightest of our country, these are old people who can no longer string together enough thoughts to understand their mere presence is hurting the entire countr…

> How else would you deal with people who are too old to do the job, and too senile to realize they can no longer perform and should abdicate?

Mandatory retirement age? Voters being adults and fucking paying attention, instead of acting like children and believing everything they see on TV and social media?

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#154

Post by triceratops »

lenerdenator wrote: post #70
toast0 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They paid for Old Age Insurance, and they reached old age, so they get to collect. Social Security as an insurance product is fiction, but playing into the fiction helps it survive to do the thing it was built for: keep the elderly out of the poor houses / off the street. Payout rates drop at higher income, and portions of the payout are taxable at higher income, so it's not like it's completely income/wealth blind.

> They paid for Old Age Insurance, and they reached old age, so they get to collect. That's just it: they're not old. Not in the way a 65-year-old was old in the 1930s. If they had to farm, mine, log, or work in a factory, yeah, they'd be too old to work. That was most of the work available when OASDI was created, and that's what it's for: to keep you from becoming destitute as an elderly person when there is no abil…

So why did we make them pay Social Security taxes for the entirety of their 40-year careers? They could've invested the money at a better return than Treasury bills and had way more liquid assets.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#155

Post by WalterBright »

estimator7292 wrote: post #114
WalterBright wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An awful lot of young people are starting businesses. Look at all the people under 30 becoming billionaires. This just didn't happen when I was young. https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2025/12/22/why-there-...

Yes it did. Billionaires are a relatively new thing, but successful businesses were led by young people across the entirety of human history. And you should not praise someone for simply being a billionaire. That's a bad thing to be.

> Yes it did.

I don't recall any. I remember when people were all agog when Gates became one.

> successful businesses were led by young people across the entirety of human history.

Sure. But billionaires?

> And you should not praise someone for simply being a billionaire.

If they're self-made, they earned the praise.

> That's a bad thing to be.

Creating value is not a bad thing. Being a self-made billionaire means they created a billion dollars of value. They didn't take it from you or anyone else. Creating SpaceX, Starlink, etc., are good things.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#156

Post by r14c »

Aurornis wrote: post #126
r14c wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we're talking about different things then. Nobody is asking for equal result. Equity means sharing the rewards of productivity, instead of allowing a group of people who do nothing get rich off of other people's hard work. That's fair. Doing good work should be rewarded!

> Nobody is asking for equal result. Pursuing some level of equality of outcomes has been a core concept in social equity https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_equity Social equality is focused around equality of opportunity. Social equity is about pursuing equality of outcome, generally by allocating resources and services unequally to give groups perceived as having historical disadvantages an extra boost.

Oh I see. I guess that's one way of looking at it. I tend to favor appropriation because it simplifies the accounting. You don't need equal outcomes exactly, you just ensure that everyone has their basic needs met and the ability to improve themselves. Historical context matters, but the issue tends to boil down social instability due to repeated displacement (redlining, gentrification). Allow people get rooted into a place and they'll build whatever they need to flourish.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#157

Post by memcg »

"Building a fairer system—­with the elderly divested of political power, wealth, and property, but guaranteed dignity and state support at the end of their lives—­would help everyone, including most of the aged."

So, we just have to take all the wealth and property

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#158

Post by alphawhisky »

jmull wrote: post #133
xboxnolifes wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

by law, then by unrest, then by revolution.

By law is how we got to where we currently are. There's no reason to think that would change. You'd have to trick all the people who are old (plus all the people who realize they will get old too) to vote away their assets, income, and power. Unrest will just harden the people who see your cause as unjust against it. That will be a strong majority of people, so will go no where. Revolution seems highly unlikely to su…

> Unrest will just harden the people who see your cause as unjust against it. That will be a strong majority of people, so will go no where.

I think you're wrong here. Most people are pretty fed up right now.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#159

Post by tsunamifury »

MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #97
opo wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>...I don’t know why people downvoted this because it is obviously correct. In a democracy you have to buy the votes of the largest constituency with other people’s money, In the last few decades both political parties in the USA have tried to outdo each other in reckless over-spending, but for the first couple hundred years that wasn't the case. Something changed.

You can read this exact criticism of democracy in „Athenaion Politeia“, (The Old Oligarch), 5th century BCE. There is nothing new under the sun. It always worked like this. Democracy is simply an incredibly destructive form of government.

To ignore scale differences here is to negate what could have been a great comment into a miss.

Re: The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis

#160

Post by pibaker »

armchairhacker wrote: post #118
throw-234 wrote: post #51

> Our gerontocracy is not the result of a malevolent plan, .. Boomers aren't distinctively evil.. The fact that they are so numerous and the fact that they are aging in era when life has been extended make the syndrome endemic. .. America faces a gerontocratic crisis of succession on the scale of society itself. The melodrama of succession—­waiting for the old to make way for the new—­defines not only our politics bu…

> cordial relations between the generations are over Is ageism not like racism, sexism, etc.? Do you have decent relations with your living parents and grandparents?

Ageism comes for everyone unless they die early. Racism usually only happens to some.
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