When does age hurt the United States?
Let me start by saying, I know this post is going to hurt some feelings and cause a real emotional response. Not because what I am saying is wrong but because most people are afraid they can no longer perform at the same level as they did when they were younger.
There is no debate that we all lose physical ability as we get older. When I was in my 30’s there were sports related situations where I had my epiphany that I wasn’t quite as good at things as I was in my 20’s. Now that I am in my mid 40’s it isn’t just the obvious things. As odd as it may sound, there are hand eye quickness things that frustrate me with things like video games. (Yes I still play a lot of video games and I would highly recommend everyone do so to stimulate the brain and reduce stress but that isn’t what this post is about.) Think about the simple things like running up and down stairs. You can still do it easy enough but now you are probably a little slower and maybe your feet or knees hurt just a little more than they used to.
Now, let’s talk about the mental side of age. I will admit that during my 30’s I started to realize that my mental abilities were actually better than when I was in my 20’s. Thats about the time when I realized the old saying “Father knows best” is pretty accurate. This is obviously attributed to experience. You really don’t know much until you go through it or experience it in some way. Again, I am in my mid 40’s so I am spouting off based on my own experience and perception of interacting with older family, friends and co-workers.
Now let’s get to the meat and potatoes of my point. If we are honest we will all admit that we treat our older parents, grandparents, friends and co-workers differently as they hit certain ages in life. There are the obvious signs of memory lapses that we all have but typically memory gets worse exponentially with age. We have all been in uncomfortable situations where an older person says something inappropriate in a group setting. Then there are the physical limitations that creep up on us a we get older. We slowly lose the ability to work, drive and in the worst cases, take care of ourselves. These are sad things to talk about but they are part of life and we should take them head on with as much dignity and respect as possible. One goal of this post is intended to do just that. We all have times in our lives when we realize it is time to take a step back and let the next generation take over. It is hard but again, it is part of life.
My biggest concern with age is the ability to stay in touch with current life and times. We all have biases and personal beliefs that are what they are. But as we get older these biases and beliefs typically get more concrete and we are more and more unwilling to have an open mind. This is where the “Father knows best” thing actually hurts us. We think because we are older, we must be right due to the vast experience we have. The reality is that unless you are atypical, people fall back to a stubborn point of view and disregard where the next generation is going. If you disagree with this go ask your 70-90 year old whoever what they think about gay rights, minority rights, current technology trends etc.. I will make it easy for you.. Just ask them what they think about Fortnite.
I know the next argument, “what does Fortnite have to do with age hurting the United States”? That answer is, in and of itself it doesn’t. But when you take everything as a whole, age doesn’t equal relevance and positive momentum.
You are probably asking, “what’s your point?”. Here it is…
The current record breaking government shutdown is an embarrassment to our country. It is sad there are hundreds of thousands of government employees who aren’t getting paid and another couple million contractors that are not getting paid. This is the United States of America and my expectation is that our leaders should be the best and brightest of us. They should be held to a higher standard and not allowed to conduct themselves the way they currently are. I hold the Senate and House (Congress) accountable but my specific point is that I hold President Trump, Nanci Pelosi and Mitch McConnell accountable. For the last two years our foreign relations have suffered, minorities have suffered, our environment has suffered and we are more divided as a country than I have experienced in my lifetime.
So, there is my rant but here are the numbers I want to share to tie age back into the conversation.
This is by no means a complete list but here are the counties I consider relevant today.
Donald Trump - President of the United States - 72 - NATO
Nanci Pelosi - Speaker of the House US - 78 - NATO
Mitch McConnell - Senate Majority Leader US - 76 - NATO
Justin Trudeau - Prime Minister of Canada - 47 - NATO
Theresa May - Prime Minister of the United Kingdom - 62 - NATO
Emmanuel Macron - President of France - 41 - NATO
Angela Merkel - Chancellor of Germany - 64 - NATO
Paolo Gentiloni - Prime Minister of Italy - 64 - NATO
Alexis Tsipras - Prime Minister of Greece - 44 - NATO
Tayyip Erdogan - President of Turkey - 64 - NATO
Pedro Sanchez - Prime Minister of Spain - 46 - NATO
Shinzo Abe - Prime Minister Japan - 64
Malcolm Turnbull - Prime Minister of Australia - 64
Enrique Peña Nieto - President of Mexico - 52
Abdel Fattah el-Sisi - President of Egypt - 64
Narendra Modi - Prime Minister of India - 68
Vladimir Putin - President of Russia - 66
Xi Jinping - President of China - 65
Moon Jae-in - President of South Korea - 65
Benjamin Netanyahu - Prime Minister of Israel - 69
Again, I know the response “President Trump is only 8 years older than Angela Merkel or 10 years older than Theresa May”. And my response would be correct and at that age, a few years makes a big difference. And I would also say, he is 31 years older than Emmanuel Macron and 25 years older than Justin Trudeau (great first name by the way). My point is that the world is trending younger while we continue to get old.
When you tie Trump’s age (72) with Pelosi (78) and McConnell (76), you get the “stay off my lawn you damn kids” attitude and the American people get the tit for tat we are currently living through. Again, an embarrassment and taking the United States backward in every way. So there is my rant in regards to age compared to other world leaders.
Now let’s compare age and relevance to some of the largest and most respected businesses in the world. Why do I bring this up? Because many of those who voted for Trump said they wanted a “businessman” to clean up Washington. So let’s go there. Here is a list of major corporations with their leaders age and number of employees.
Apple - Tim Cook - 58 - 132,000 employees
Google - Sundar Pichai - 46 - 85,000 employees
Microsoft - Satya Nadella - 51 - 135,000 employees
Amazon - Jeff Bezos - 55 - 613,000 employees
Alibaba - Daniel Zhang - 47 - 66,000 employees
Facebook - Mark Zuckerberg - 34 - 25,000 employees
JP Morgan Chase - Jamie Dimon - 62 - 250,000 employees
Bank of America - Brian Moynihan - 59 - 209,000 employees
Wal-Mart - Doug McMillon - 52 - 2,300,000 employees
US Government - Between 2-5 million (if you include military)
And your “businessman” you voted for..
Trump Organization - 22,000 employees
So my point. Most major businesses do their best to encourage retirement at 65. Some actually require it. And the average age of those well respected companies is 51.5 years. Again, Trump is 72, Pelosi is 78 and McConnell is 76. Trump hasn’t managed anything near what he is required to today. Essentially, Trump is not qualified for the job he currently has.
Piggy back that to a recent study showing people over 65 share the most fake news on Facebook and you are hopefully starting to see my point. I am not writing this to make anyone feel bad because I will be right there soon enough myself. I can only hope that I will have enough self awareness to take the necessary steps back so I don’t hinder progress with whatever I am involved with at the time.
My main goal with this post is to talk about the elephant in the room. Our leaders should be the best of us, move us forward in a positive and respectful way. It’s time for our leadership to get younger and more diverse. The last election did a pretty good job of it but we still have a long way to go. It’s time!
