alt Hacker NewsI haven’t done the math but I’m assuming if you look at the founding fathers and life expectancy for the general population in the 18th century they would have represented what people in their 60s represent today relative to the rest of the population.
Also you can’t really talk about a geriatric population ‘voting itself into power’ if it makes up such a small proportion of the population. Young people just abstain from voting in western democracies, which is a choice just as much as voting one way or the other is. Yes, a person votes in his own self interest - that’s how that works.
Replies
They were pretty much what we’d now call fraternity brothers recently out of William and Mary plus whomever else they could rope in.
You’re not really supposed to just vote in your self-interest. It’s a proxy for violence.
>Yes, a person votes in his own self interest - that’s how that works
No, that's not how that works, some Rousseau might be in order. What early Republicans still recognized is the concept of General Will. That a polity is not just the sum of its individual interests but requires an orientation of each member towards the shared common good. A democracy that is governed by self interest, in which simply put each vote is bought is a democracy in decayed state.
That this doesn't even register with people any more and is perceived as the norm is exactly what I'm talking about when I'm saying that most current democratic nations are at the end of their life. If young people are a demographic minority and each person votes only in their selfish interest the future of the nation is, by definition, dead.That they opt out in that situation is actually rational.