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Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

economist.com

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Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#31

Post by jrflowers »

laszlojamf wrote: post #16
lifestyleguru wrote: post #7

Welcome 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

What year was the president born in for the past decade

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#32

Post by lclc »

roenxi wrote: post #28
lclc wrote: post #11

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.

Are we calling 40s old now? There are 2 countries where the median age is above 50 [0] and the US is 38.9. I suppose under 18s aren't in the voting pool but if a country has a median age of 50 they probably don't have that many under-18s running around. And old people don't vote as a totally unified a block, it'd be like saying countries are run for women because the median voter is a woman. I'd suggest the main issu…

The median age of voters in the US is 50 years old (2019).

I think it's a fair assumption that majority of the 50 year old think about their retirement (meaning around 30 years into the future).

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#33

Post by gherkinnn »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #7

Welcome 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…

Would you look at that. Clinton born in 46, Bush Jr 46, Obama 61, Trump 46 and Biden 42.

And this why immortality is bad and death is not to be cured.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_Unit...

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#34

Post by dandaka »

amunozo wrote: post #21
zdragnar wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Low birthrates are a constant in every industrialized country independently of culture.

Every country is moving in that direction

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#35

Post by lava_pidgeon »

jyounker wrote: post #15
lava_pidgeon wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I'm not American but I can tell city - land conflict, geographic conflicts are a very much thing in the whole world. I mean we have more contemporary political research so why not cite these.

Oh, also communism, Marx ideas were a catastrophy for Eastern Europe. Greetings from my vacation in Bucharest

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#36

Post by JuniperMesos »

atoav wrote: post #9

The word becoming implies it isn't one as of now. The median age of the population in the US is 39. The median age of the Senate is 65. In other countries 65 is retirement age. So you could say, yes "America" (the US) is a gerontocracy.

The Latin word "senate" originally mean "council of elders", and is transparently related to "senex", meaning "old man". It's pretty ordinary in human society for the decision-makers to be primarily comprised of old people who have lived a long time and seen a lot.

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#37

Post by CurtMonash »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #18
laszlojamf wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Clinton, Bush 43, and Trump were all born within a 2 month period in 1946.

JFK, Nixon, Ford, Reagan and Bush 41 all served in fairly junior roles in WW2, even if Reagan just made training films and so on. LBJ pretended to serve in the same war. (He went out on one bombing mission as some kind of observer and was awarded a Silver Star, after which he stopped bothering the military and went back to his real career.)

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#38

Post by Chu4eeno »

zdragnar wrote: post #14
lclc wrote: post #11

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.

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.

No cultures directly favor low or negative birthrates.

But we've known since the 1800s that it follows from female education (and this seems independent of culture, it was first observed in France, but you can see the same trend in any African country, or even Iran), which is favored.

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#39

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

jdw64 wrote: post #27

Most countries are facing similar problems. In the US, it's the millennial problem. In France, it's HENRY (High Earner, Not Rich Yet). In Korea, it's the '20-something male' issue. In Japan, it's the 'geneki sedai' (working generation). In China, it's 'neijuan' (involution). The common thread is that these are generations that climbed the class ladder early on, when infrastructure was lacking and there were opportuni…

Boomers may have had harsh conditions growing up, depending where they were. But once into adulthood they had a fairly easy time of it. Jobs were plentiful, costs of essentials like housing and further education were relatively low, and they had significant disposable income.

The fact many of them assume the modern economy works the same way when in fact it's a much harsher environment is a curious phenomenon.

Re: Is America becoming a gerontocracy?

#40

Post by silvestrov »

jdw64 wrote: post #27

Most countries are facing similar problems. In the US, it's the millennial problem. In France, it's HENRY (High Earner, Not Rich Yet). In Korea, it's the '20-something male' issue. In Japan, it's the 'geneki sedai' (working generation). In China, it's 'neijuan' (involution). The common thread is that these are generations that climbed the class ladder early on, when infrastructure was lacking and there were opportuni…

Denmark does not have a problem with age. It has gone the other way: members are younger today than in the old days. Graph: https://www.ft.dk/-/media/sites/ft/billeder/infografikker/ta...

Average age is 44 years !!!

The oldest is 72. Youngest is 23. Majority is 30-54. https://www.ft.dk/-/media/sites/ft/billeder/infografikker/ta...

source: https://www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk/danmark/det-nye-folketing-...

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