It's the basic 'flaw' of Democracy: Since the majority of the people are old, they will vote in the interest of old people.
That's why the pension system will never be fixed.
Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
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Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#12[dead]
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#13Biden, Trump, Schumer, Feinstein, McConnel say: "What's that, sonny? Ask me again after my afternoon nap."
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Anyway, the article's author seems to be quite the hard-line capitalist:
> "The only plausible way to keep public pensions solvent... is for retirement ages to rise as life expectancy does."
So, even though society's productive capacity is incredibly high, having risen and risen over two centuries of industrialization and mechanization - supposedly the problem is that older people are slacking off. This is (mostly) false. Most of the basic material wants we face today are artificial. That is, people don't starve because there's not enough food, they aren't homeless because there are not enough houses and apartments, they are not left untreated for medical conditions for lack of doctors and nurses etc. That's not to say that there are never shortages of materials or of trained professionals; but what the author is essentially saying is that working people need to shed blood, sweat, and tears more so that the insufficient share of the fruit of their labor, that actually goes back to them (= us), becomes sufficient.
This is not dissimilar from a feudal lord, who takes most produce as tax, telling his tenant farmer that if he wants to have enough to feed his children, he should get some of them to also work the fields so that there's enough to go around.
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#14It's the basic 'flaw' of Democracy: Since the majority of the people are old, they will vote in the interest of old people. That's why the pension system will never be fixed.
The majority of people being old is a relatively modern problem. One could even argue that it is a problem specific to cultures that favor low or negative birthrates.
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#15"We are going to call the current situation anything but class warfare." boomers vs millenials, reds vs blues, south vs north, city folks vs country ones
Maybe a political conflicts are more complex than a guy 150 years ago thought.
I think you're demonstrating the reluctance to admit that class conflict is a real thing.
There has been a class war going on for at least four decades in the US, and the lower classes are on the loosing side. All you have to do is look at growing wage gaps in that period. We can come up with all sorts of just-so stories, but the simple answer is that the rich have captured the US government, and it is being governed primarily for their benefit.
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#16Welcome to the honorable club with with Italy and Germany. What's very specific is that the old pull up the ladder. They don't pass the knowledge, nor experience, not a single cent trickles down, no power is delegated. Even the opposite, with help of immediate family they vacuum up the money and power even further. What's quite mindblowing for an outside observer is that the birth year of American president has been…
Bush Jr was born '46. Obama (literally the next president) was born in '61.
Not much of a pattern there
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#17"We are going to call the current situation anything but class warfare." boomers vs millenials, reds vs blues, south vs north, city folks vs country ones
None of those things are classes in the sense of the times the notion of class warfare was first pitched, and many of them cross classes.
There's plenty of poor/impoverished boomers, blues, reds, city and country folk
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#18Welcome to the honorable club with with Italy and Germany. What's very specific is that the old pull up the ladder. They don't pass the knowledge, nor experience, not a single cent trickles down, no power is delegated. Even the opposite, with help of immediate family they vacuum up the money and power even further. What's quite mindblowing for an outside observer is that the birth year of American president has been…
Bush Jr was born '46. Obama (literally the next president) was born in '61. Not much of a pattern there
Look up, Obama is the only exception.
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#19America may be become a gerontocracy but it’s far more likely to be a plutocracy first and that will cause more long term harm. Old people die eventually, but the ultra rich keep it in the family.
Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?
#20"We are going to call the current situation anything but class warfare." boomers vs millenials, reds vs blues, south vs north, city folks vs country ones
None of those things are classes in the sense of the times the notion of class warfare was first pitched, and many of them cross classes. There's plenty of poor/impoverished boomers, blues, reds, city and country folk
I think that's exactly the grandparent's point.
Those conflicts are all the pretexts - they believe that it's actually class war and the other labels are all used to avoid calling it by its name.