From the Washington Post news section:
Older Americans are dominating like never before, but what comes next?
By Marc Fisher
October 24, 2023 at 12:00 p.m. EDT… Yet even beyond Washington, a geriatric elite also controls many other aspects of an aging society, to such an extent that in some professions there are deep concerns about how those roles will be filled in decades to come. In medicine, big business, farming, construction trades, and across much of the American economy, the workforce is getting older and older. In the leadership ranks, the elderly are increasingly staying in command, well past traditional retirement age, which can sometimes limit the positions available to younger workers from a wider variety of backgrounds.
About a decade ago, the top five Democrats in diverse California were all elderly whites (Jerry Brown, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, Nancy Pelosi, and party chairman John Burton), as if there was a feeling among Democrats that the Diverse weren’t quite ready for prime time. Since then there’s been a shift among California Democrats, but Kamala Harris has flopped as the affirmative action Veep, and now I sense more enthusiasm among Democrats for Gavin Newsom than Kamala.
Small sample size, of course, but it could be illustrative.
In Tinseltown, this fall’s top movies feature actors who predate the boomers: Robert DeNiro, 80, in a film by Martin Scorsese, also 80;
And in Killers of the Flower Moon, 48 year old Leonardo DiCaprio plays a young man back from the Great War.
When the National Research Group asked moviegoers which actors would draw them to a theater, the top 20 performers included two octogenarians and no one under 35. The average age of those actors is now 58.2. …
The average age of chief executives of U.S. corporations when they were hired into that position was 45.9 in 2005. By 2018, that average had shot up to 54.1, according to Statista Research, a business data firm. …
In politics and business alike, “when leadership stays too long, they can be stiff and unchanging,” Spisak said. “Older employees bring a ton of practical knowledge … But if you’re staying on and status-hoarding, maybe you’re not really a leader, you’re just somebody in a hierarchy trying to maintain power.” …
In the federal judiciary, where there are neither mandatory retirement ages nor term limits, the median age of judges is now 68, the oldest ever. When the Founders decided to appoint judges for life, they did not foresee life lasting quite this long. Alexander Hamilton argued for lifetime tenure, noting “how few there are who outlive the season of intellectual vigor.” …
Beyond the leadership, the federal government’s rank and file, 2.2. million strong, is lopsided by age: More than 30 percent of federal workers are 55 or older, and only 8 percent are under 30 (by comparison, in the private sector, 20-somethings make up 23 percent of the workforce). Leaders have long worried about their ability to fill crucial roles when the older workers do finally retire….
That’s an attitude shared by many U.S. car dealers, whose average age is now 72, the oldest it’s ever been.
“Experience matters,” Fitzgerald said. But he’s the first to admit that his continued leadership represents a significant change in how American business operates. “We stay longer in leadership because we’re selfish. I’m sitting here talking to you and there’s no way I should be alive. We’re benefiting from the wonderful private medical system: I had my aortic valve replaced with a bull’s valve. I just had a pacemaker installed this spring. I have two bad knees and I had one repaired. We’re all living longer, 20 years longer than our fathers lived.”
