The year is 2023, and the first generation to have never known a time before the internet has taken over the job market and joined the adult world, with a slew of new challenges arising every single year, skyrocketing inflation rates and an insanely hostile political climate. Technology is putting thousands of jobs at risk. The internet is taking over almost every aspect of life. Forty years ago the current state of the world was almost unimaginable.
A 2023 study done by FiscalNote found that the average age of a senator is 64 years old, with the average age of a House representative 57 years old. Both of these are drastically higher than the median of US citizens, which is 38.8 years old, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Simply put, the oldest current senator, Chuck Grassley, is 89 years old and has been in office since the year 1980.
Though the age of these congress members does aid in giving them a higher level of experience in not just government but also the fields they pursued before joining Congress, there are fields that this primarily elderly government just aren’t able to effectively govern with all the necessary perspective.
With how quickly the modern world is shifting and changing, especially for the newer generations now becoming young adults, the government must be able to adapt with the changing times and accurately represent all different groups of people who could experience all the struggles facing Americans today.
A gerontocracy run by elderly people is more likely to ignore the problems they did not experience in their youth that young Americans now face.
The skyrocketing price of housing is a struggle that the people of congress have not felt. Though some might be quick to say that with rising inflation housing is just as affordable as it has always been, that simply is not true.
A study done by Any Time Estimate found the price of “goods and services have continued to increase at a steady incline. Meanwhile, housing prices have spiked wildly, far outpacing the general inflation rate — especially in recent years. Home prices… have increased 1,608% since early 1970, while inflation has increased just 644% in comparison.”
When many of those currently in office were buying their first home, the price of housing was reasonable enough that they could afford to buy property suitable for them and their entire family with a singular income. Since then this property has only grown in value, allowing them to passively make hundreds of thousands of dollars over multiple decades.
ATTOM, a real estate data company, looked into the affordability of housing in 2023 and “found that home prices in 99% of [the areas being studied is] beyond the reach of the average income earner.”
Not only does this result in a disconnect between the government representatives’ experience with homeownership compared to young people today, but the congress people are actively incentivized not to do anything about the lack of affordable housing. The rising price of housing only makes them more passive income off the property they were able to buy when it was still reasonably affordable to do so.
Though housing is only one specific issue, situations similar to that of affordable housing, in which there is a generational disconnect between the government and the people can be found in any place in which every day life and legislation intersect.
Generation Z and millennials need to actively fight with their vote to make sure that the government is representing them and the world we live in today, and not a world long lost to time.