The Old Guard: Confronting America's Gerontocratic Crisis • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by tdb7893 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:06 PM UTC

0xDEAFBEAD wrote: post #33

Commentators: "America's young are addicted to their phones, hopelessly politically polarized, and socially illiterate. Test scores are dropping and critical thinking skills are at an all-time low. They hate and fear the other gender, mainline conspiracy theory podcasts, struggle with anxiety, were coddled from birth, etc. etc." Also commentators: "The elderly have to go. We need fresh blood." (Yes I acknowledge ther…

The first commentators are talking mostly about gen-z and gen-alpha nowadays while the second group of commentators wants gen-x or millennials to have power finally. These aren't really opposite takes at all (and if you're talking about test scores and conspiratorial thinking boomers seem to be worse than gen-x and millennials in my experience so in many ways these commentaries are not only not oppositional but actually compatible).

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

#142

Post by stackskipton » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:07 PM UTC

y-curious wrote: post #106

dzonga wrote: post #101

this problem with older people not giving in to younger ones is prevalent everywhere. professors - with tenure - they can die on the job. board rooms are visibly older e.g average age of Apple board members 68. the partners at law firms etc. now very few companies have very few succession plans. in other parts of the world even worse e.g in Africa - you have presidents with one foot in the grave tryin' to rule.

Well the problem is much more pronounced as people live longer and longer. I think this will all come to a head soon. Social security, for one, is going to exceedingly get strained as people draw on it for longer. Being alive also doesn’t mean you’re competent.

Problem is, Social Security will be solvent until 2037 at current prediction which means it goes insolvent when youngest boomer is 73. So basically most of them will get all their Social Security, die and leave Gen X to get fucked.

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

#143

Post by WalterBright » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

hilariously wrote: post #92

WalterBright wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with "solving inequality" is there is no incentive for one to do better. If one can live as well as everyone else, with no effort, why should one make the effort?

True, but I dont think any UBI scheme says "everyone live at the same level" more like "everyone gets enough to not die" which is a very different framing. Work or die vs Work to gain additional benefits.

We already have welfare programs. Nobody is starving to death in the US.

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

#144

Post by CalRobert » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:09 PM UTC

XorNot wrote: post #3

bell-cot wrote: post #2

[flagged]

That's just mandatory voting. The fine for not voting in Australia is about $30. This is...nothing in the grand scheme of things. But it's enough. And you don't even have to vote: you have to turn up, that's it.

Maybe the real secret is the free sausage.

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

#145

Post by WalterBright » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:10 PM UTC

croon wrote: post #104

WalterBright wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we did that, we wouldn't have SpaceX, Nvidia, AI, etc.

There are points in history where the productivity increases were more equitably spread, and we still got lasers, microwaves, MRI, mRNA, microchips, the internet, etc, etc, from national funding no less.

People are paid according to the value they produce - equity has nothing to do with it.

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

#146

Post by underlipton » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

lenerdenator wrote: post #105

throw-234 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They have three new or late-model vehicles. Depends on geography of course, but it's not rare at all for boomers to have this many houses as a normal part of how they experienced middle-class life. As a group they are not only more likely to have rental/investment property, but also more likely to have multiple such properties. Why would they sell? They can get you to pay for all their services, and vote as a block…

Because that cannot continue in perpetuity. The cracks are already starting to show. If I were in my 60s faced with the real possibility of living another 15-30 years I'd want the younger people to feel like they had something to look forward to. Many young and middle-aged people in the US don't feel that way. What they can't get through the ballot box, they'll get other ways, ways that will cause others to say "I'm…

They're not thinking that far ahead. Their response to the first waves of discontent - Occupy Wall Street, Trayvon Martin Protests, Michael Brown Protests, Charlottesville, Freddie Gray Protests, George Floyd Protests, January 6th - was either to mock or chide the aggrieved, or to cast them as unprecedented threats to the nation's security (but then not actually do anything to address grievances or even punish transgressions). So much stuff has burned in the past 1.5 decades, there's still not a wealth-adjusted plurality of Boomers who want to fix anything. Their tacit rallying cry came from Biden: "Nothing fundamentally will change."

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

#147

Post by WalterBright » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:15 PM UTC

armchairhacker wrote: post #120

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-...

> Fueled by AI, prediction markets and online gambling, there are more self-made billionaires under 30 than ever before, 13 up from a previous record of 7. Two of those examples are online gambling, which is controversial to the extent that it's partly outlawed in the US. But more importantly, 13 isn't an awful lot. Approximately how many young people today have started successful businesses whose valuation is under…

> Approximately how many young people today have started successful businesses whose valuation is under $1 billion?

You can type such questions into google as well as I can.

> 13 isn't an awful lot

There aren't that many self-made billionaires of any age.

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

#148

Post by throw-234 » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:16 PM UTC

rayiner wrote: post #131

johngossman wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Go look at the demographics of the last election and then tell me which groups shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[flagged]

> You're overlooking that the geriatric people are carrying on the traditional liberal/conservative debate on both sides of the aisle.

Workers skew young, capital skews old. When politics is money literally the only thing the left / right actually agree on is fucking over young people. That's what it takes to collectively focus on inflating real-estate / stocks that the youth is locked out of, while ignoring the labor market, and the cost of education, and periodically blowing up the economy on behalf of interest groups, with outsourcing or the like previously, next with AI. We've probably been in a job recession for years, and we only just noticed.

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

#149

Post by newsoftheday » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:20 PM UTC

alphawhisky wrote: post #135

This article touches on the fact that old folks have much more money accumulated than younger people, and this causes a large social disconnect. Maybe if we put a cap on the age for voting (i.e. no voting once you retire) then older people would be incentivized to spend their wealth, time, and energy on young people in the hopes that they would carry the torch politically. Regardless, it's obvious by current inflatio…

> old folks have much more money

I retired last year, lead software engineer, never got into management as a civilian, did software for over 3 decades. My salary was lower than it was as a mid level 20 years ago.

What old people have "much more money", maybe they can send some my way.

I thank God for Social Security and hope and pray it remains well into the future, even for the 99% of the people who are saying bigoted, dumb shit on this page.

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

#150

Post by newsoftheday » Thu, May 07, 2026, 2:22 PM UTC

justin66 wrote: post #139

ungreased0675 wrote: post #4

Term limits would fix it

> Term limits would fix it This is really obviously not true. The Democrats' preferred candidate for Maine's US Senate seat, Janet Mills, was 78 years old. She had never served in congress. (she dropped out of the primary when her impending loss became obvious)

> she dropped out of the primary when her impending loss became obvious

That is how voting and elections is supposed to work, not by saying people of a certain age, color, race or creed can't hold office because young people today are bigoted and feel they deserve more than all generations that ever preceded them throughout all of history.