EP 298 America, the Gerontocracy

: ‘Our leaders, our electorate and our hallowed system of government itself are extremely old’, so begins a compelling article by Timothy Noah on politico.com.  And while age can be a virtue, when accompanied by wisdom and experience, it can also define the issues and interests a society chooses to be most concerned about.  Some of those might not be as far-reaching as future generations would like.  So, as America is poised to see a battle for president among men in their seventies(perhaps)and as leadership in both chambers of Congress is of the same age, should we ask ourselves whether that’s a good thing on the whole?  Or, perhaps, we should ask that huge cohort of millennials why they are not voting in the numbers they should in order to compete for the positions of power that the baby boomers continue to hold on to.  Let’s state the obvious: baby boomers are living much longer than previous generations and they vote in greater numbers, too.  And speaking of aging, we might also want to consider our system of government itself.  That, too, is old and less than fully functioning.  No nation has a Constitution older than ours and harder to amend if recent practice is any guide.  Enjoy this interesting discussion of all these issues on this podcast.

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