Professor Samuel Moyn’s Book Challenges America’s Gerontocracy

The 2024 presidential campaign cast a harsh spotlight on President Joe Biden’s age and mental acuity as well as the erratic behavior of his successor, Donald Trump. Both men were the oldest presidents to take office, and the campaign highlighted the political consequences of aging leadership to millions of Americans. But Biden and Trump are just the tip of the aging iceberg, writes Professor Samuel Moyn in his new book.

In “Gerontocracy in America: How the Old are Hoarding Wealth and Power and What to Do About It,” Moyn examines the nation’s age divide and how it curtails opportunities for the young. 

Aging politicians aren’t limited to the White House, Moyn writes. The median age is over 60 for members of Congress and 68 for federal judges. (Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter, who retired at 69, was described in his New York Times obituary as “a teenager by Supreme Court standards,” Moyn notes.) But the problems of gerontocracy extend beyond politicians and the judiciary. 

Senior voters turn out in much higher numbers for elections, especially local and off-cycle ones, and disproportionately finance political campaigns. Moyn cites data showing that older Americans hold the biggest bank accounts and stock portfolios, hoard jobs by delaying retirement, and live in the choicest real estate. They enjoy the most government benefits by a vast degree, Moyn says, and benefit from a favorable tax code.

The result is a society that privileges many older Americans to the detriment of all, including many senior citizens themselves, according to Moyn. 

“If Americans deserve a society that is oriented to innovation and problem-solving, and equips and launches the young into the prime of life, the country is heading in the wrong direction,” he writes.

Moyn delves into the problems caused by aging politicians, not least of which is when one dies in office. But the bigger issue is the mismatch between aging leaders and the constituents they serve, he says.

“Our leaders, people are now told every day, are supposed to ‘look like America,’” he writes. “But after so much hard if unfinished work to remedy exclusion by gender and race, our government looks least like America in failing to provide younger representation.” 

Representation matters, according to Moyn, if we want citizens to identify with and have confidence in their government.

If Americans deserve a society that is oriented to innovation and problem-solving, and equips and launches the young into the prime of life, the country is heading in the wrong direction,” Moyn writes.

Even worse than the gerontocracy of politicians is the gerontocracy of the electorate, Moyn writes. The much larger number of older voters has transformed the policymaking process, with the rise of a “gray lobby” and organizations like AARP. The elderly’s priorities take precedence over the needs of the young, who lack comparable advocacy groups.

Moyn also examines how older Americans disproportionately benefit from the current tax system. He urges age-related tax breaks to be revisited so that they promote intergenerational justice rather than supercharging privilege. “Just because you are old gives you no special right to be rich and untaxed, no matter the form of income,” he writes.

Throughout “Gerontocracy in America,” Moyn offers solutions for these problems, including age limits for political office and campaign finance reform to prevent seniors from “spending their way to a compliant political order.” He describes election reform proposals such as overweighting the votes of the young. He also supports mandatory retirement ages, especially for CEOs and even for tenured professors. “My own domain, academia, is the worst of all as a place where old people stay on, to the detriment of the rest,” he writes.

Moyn seeks to advance what he calls “intergenerational equity” with his book. “While gerontocracy is hardly the only source of our difficulties, no one interested in how injustice and social strains are shaped and reproduced in America today should ignore how deep it goes,” he states. “In the end, taking it seriously is essential for treating everyone appropriately and fairly.”

Samuel Moyn is the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University, where he also serves as head of Grace Hopper College. Trained in modern European intellectual history, he works on political and legal thought in modern times and on constitutional and international law in historical and current perspective.