Yale Professor Defines Elderly Americans as the New Class Enemy

by Paul Craig Roberts,Paul Craig Roberts:

A Yale University professor of law and history, Samuel Moyn, has resurrected and redefined Marxian class conflict.In the old Marxism, the capitalists exploited the workers.In Moyn’s version, elderly Americansexploit the young. Moyn’s solution, espoused, of course, in the New York Times (April 21), is for the old to be dispossessed of their homes, jobs, accumulated wealth, and political and judicial offices.These dispossessions and more are needed for “intergenerational justice,” by which Moyn means redistribution from the aged to the young, and in order to stop older Americans from “Hoarding America’s Potential.” Moyn thinks that a poorly educated and undisciplined youth can manage all of America’s affairs better than better educated and more disciplined older Americans.

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Moyn builds his case against “gerontocratic society.” Older Americans, that is more experienced Americans, are overrepresented in political life and have too much power. This results in inequality and injustice and in regressive public policies.

Moyn claims that older Americans are overrepresented in elections which gives them a stranglehold.What Moyn means is that older Americans take their citizenship responsibility more seriously than do the young and actually vote in elections.By being overrepresented in voting due to youthful disinterest the elderly have amassed “excessive power” that “harms society” by resisting open borders and “environmental remediation” (global warming claims), and denying society youthful creativity and dynamism such as we are currently observing in New York City.

Other evidence of unfairness and inequality are the rise in the median net worth of the elderly and fall in net worth of youths and that the elderly have a larger share of wealth than the young.Apparently, it is beyond Moyn’s comprehension that the elderly got established in life before so many well-paying American jobs were offshored and before robotics and AI cut into remaining good jobs.It doesn’t dawn on Moyn that the elderly have had many more years to accumulate wealth than have youth via such means as paid off home mortgages.

Moyn also blames the elderly for owning more homes than the youth. Again he overlooks the obvious.The replacement jobs for the “dirty fingernail” jobs sent abroad don’t support both a mortgage and a car payment. Why does Moyn think it is the elderly’s fault that the median age of a home buyer has risen from 30 in 1981 to 56 in 2024?