By Ryan McMaken
America’s elderly political class is only the most visible symptom. The deeper problem is a government built to transfer wealth from younger Americans to a caste of older, wealthier generations.
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By Ryan McMaken
America’s elderly political class is only the most visible symptom. The deeper problem is a government built to transfer wealth from younger Americans to a caste of older, wealthier generations.
With who? Gen Y vs. Gen Z and Gen A?
It’s sort of a rolling conflict where people switch sides as they age.
The next big beef will come from supporting all the deadbeat millennials in their obnoxious old age, unless it’s been abolished or reformed by then.
Yeah I will not be shocked if they come after bitcoin with some egregious tax scheme.
“You were lucky to be alive in 2026 when Bitcoin was $62k now it’s $6M per coin here in 2046 and all you did was just buy and hold. Gen Y didn’t do anything to achieve that wealth! That’s not fair to us Gen D’ers they should be taxed 15% on each bitcoin sale or loan created using bitcoin”
Get ready this will be coming especially after this credit bubble busts and growth is hard because the demographics are terrible.
I’d be surprised if that didn’t happen
Do you think there's anything unique about America, or modern Western democracies, that causes this? Or do you think it's a universal problem that has repeatedly been an issue throughout history and across countries?
americans have very low kinship/community with their families in general - compared to e.g. southern europeans where generations and cousins etc live under the same roof or in the same street.
I can't prove that these things are related. But they seem as if they were
That's a meaty question. I imagine it's a variety of something fairly universal: i.e. any constituency that is capable of politically funneling resources to itself will do so.
Is there something about our culture(s) that makes age a dimension along which to form a constituency like that, though? I don't know. People talk about the breakdown of other civic relationships having left us with nothing but immutable characteristics to identify with.
That's certainly an interesting thought, but age doesn't seem to be a category that people actively identify with politically. I do wonder if it has more to do with economic circumstances correlating more strongly with age than ever before... which would actually be pretty consistent with a
wtfhappenedin1971style hypothesisIf you imagine a typical consumption smoothing over the lifecycle scenario, unexpectedly increasing lifespans and devaluing savings will both lead to underfunded retirements.
Where the breakdown of normal relationships factors in is that the oldsters have less (or don't look to) family, church, friends, fraternal order, etc. when things get tough. Instead they just turn to the state.
Further, in a society with those thick networks of relationships, people might be less willing to fleece others politically because it's more likely that they have a connection to them.
Ouhh, yeeeee!! Ryan, let's fucking gooo
More eloquent and less ranty than me, but aaah wonderful to have a fellow boomer hater on board
Every generation tends to shape the rules around its own circumstances. The challenge is making sure future generations aren’t left with the bill.