I'm increasingly thinking politicians should not be allowed to make decisions that won't impact them. We've got people that will be dead in 20 years preventing action on global warming.
They won't live long enough to have to deal with their consequences of their actions, and they clearly don't care if they burn the planet down before their kids inherit it.
I think this translates to an age limit of 65-75.
More importantly, I think this should be applied to voters as well.
Please, don’t spread ageism. Yes, brains perform worse in many kinds of ways when they age. But that’s highly variable. And there are narcissists and sociopaths in every age group.
The kinds of ways matter. A primary way the majority of brains start to show age is in trust and risk assessment. [1] [2]
I agree, someone with a compromised ability to evaluate risk is probably more than capable at doing most desk jobs. However, the last thing we need is politicians who's aging brains have been compromised in evaluating future risks. Putting someone most likely to send scammers gift cards in charge of foreign policy and assessing climate change risks is simply a recipe for disaster.
It doesn't seem all that crazy to demand that the ~300 people running the US not be at an age where mental decline is common.
High testosterone correlates with aggression, and young people have way higher T than elderly. Should we ban people in the highest T quartile from becoming politicians? Of course not. It's a complex and highly individual problem which can't be solved by filtering via just one variable, like age, gender, level of brain deterioration, or some hormonal level.
Here are some problems that _don't_ prevent people of any age from becoming a congressman or woman:
- Alcohol abuse
- Narcissism and/or sociopathy
- High debt
- Cult membership
- Most importantly: Personal financial interest in specific policy changes
Why not start with these? Banning elderly because they on average tend to be more gullible seems like a weird way of addressing governmental issues.
On a different level, I find the idea of banning people from governmental positions based on a specific trait deeply undemocratic, and a slippery slope. Principiis obsta.
It's really crazy that the only way it seems like we can get these senators/congresspeople out of office is death from old age.
The fact is, your mind DOES deteriorate when you get older. That's why so many phone scams are special built to target older people.
A change I'd make to the constitution is that "nobody over the age of 70 can hold a governmental position".