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Even if you don't agree with the list, to think that the lives of the majority of Americans could be in the hands of people who are disconnected from them, both

Even if you don't agree with the list, to think that the lives of the majority of Americans could be in the hands of people who are disconnected from them, both economically and generationally, is frightening. The average US senator is 61 years old. The average congressman is 58 years old. And the median net worth on both branches is $500,000.

Retric 6y ago
A median net worth for ~60 year old professionals of 500,000$ isn’t that far from the US average. That’s well outside the top 1%. It would be interesting to see how they compare to say accounts. What I find interesting is the congressional pension is generally their largest source of income in retirement.
- dfxm12 6y ago
  This article [0] suggest that the median net worth of a 60 year old to be $187,300. I'm not sure why you're limiting your number to professionals. There's a lot of room between the top 1% and the majority of Americans, so even those "well outside" the top 1% are still likely to be economically disconnected from the majority of Americans. 0 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-your-net-worth-and-how-do-you-compare-to-others-2018-09-24 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-your-net-worth-and-h...
  - Retric 6y ago
    Congress is paid $174,000 per year which hasn’t increased since 2009 and was worth more back then. That’s a much larger difference than the amount of savings they have. Anyway, 95 percent of today’s House members and 100 percent of the Senate’s have a bachelor’s degree or higher. 1/2 have a law degree and they include several doctors etc. So, based on their current salary and likely professional background having 500k vs 300k of savings actually seems kind of low IMO. I mean running for congress takes more drive than the average person, so presumably higher net worth should be expected. By comparison the net worth of the top 1% for all 60 year olds, collage education or not is over 4 million.
  - bostonpete 6y ago
    > I'm not sure why you're limiting your number to professionals. Because pretty much every one in Congress has a professional background? I guess this begs the question whether Congress should be more representative of the population as a whole. To take a (perhaps?) extreme example -- if 6 percent of Americans are high school drop-outs, should 6% of our lawmakers be as well?
djohnston 6y ago
I'm surprised the median net worth is that low
ojbyrne 6y ago
52% of voters in the 2020 election were over 50 [1], so they're not even that disconnected generationally from their voters. The median age of Americans overall is 38 [2], and if you took out minors, you're probably well over 40. Again not that different in age. One could also argue that since the USA is getting older all the time, that gap is going to disappear completely in the next 10-20 years. 1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/26/what-the-2020-electorate-looks-like-by-party-race-and-ethnicity-age-education-and-religion/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/26/what-the-20... 2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241494/median-age-of-the-us-population/#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20the%20median%20age,even%20younger%2C%20at%2029.5%20years.&text=The%20year%202035%20is%20expected,population%20of%20the%20United%20States https://www.statista.com/statistics/241494/median-age-of-the....
rconti 6y ago
What an odd comment. The article is not claiming that these people are the most influential people in America, just that these are the most influential octogenarians. The same article could be written for any age range. And commenting about how "scary" it is that there are influential teens or 40somethings would be equally strange. And perhaps there's value in generational diversity? The first half of the comment seems to just serve as a conclusion drawn from the premise in the last line, which doesn't have a ton to do with the article, other than the fact that 3 of the listed people are politicians. But then, there are thousands of politicians across the country, and it stands to reason that longer tenure tends to be paired with a sense of influence. Of course, the article also has activists and donors media types, and so on. But, again, these kinds of people tend to have influence, and are found at many ages.
reaperducer 6y ago
to think that the lives of the majority of Americans could be in the hands of people who are disconnected from them, both economically and generationally, is frightening. It sounds like you place no value on experience. Do you know more today than you did ten years ago? People older than you know what it's like to be your age. People your age don't know what it's like to be older than you are.
op03 6y ago
Being disconnected or connected or representative is not some magic bullet. Obama has already proved you can connect with everyone and make no big dent on any hard issue. There are thousands of simpler examples if you study hard problems. Imho the hardest problems (whether it involves a family or an org or a nation) require old people on the front lines. Not because the front lines are going to drastically move (they take their own sweet time with hard probs), but because who ever is on the front line is going to take a hit or get slaughtered. Why send a young person or a newly wed or someone with kids or someone showing promise on simpler probs to that front line? As soon as you have to deal with your first hard unsolvable problem, what you think matters and doesn't matter changes.
rayiner 6y ago
> The average US senator is 61 years old. The average congressman is 58 years old. And the median net worth on both branches is $500,000. What’s the average age of people old enough to be elected to Congress (> 30)? The median age of eligible voters is 47.5. The median age of actual midterm voters is over 50.
- tptacek 6y ago
  David Shor has a good bit on the Rationally Speaking podcast (someone tipped me off, I'm not endorsing the podcast itself) about how a big problem in Democratic politics is that participants aren't old enough; campaigns and staff are dominated by 20-something ideologues who don't know how to communicate with the median voter.

Retric 6y ago

A median net worth for ~60 year old professionals of 500,000$ isn’t that far from the US average. That’s well outside the top 1%. It would be interesting to see how they compare to say accounts. What I find interesting is the congressional pension is generally their largest source of income in retirement.

dfxm12 6y ago
This article [0] suggest that the median net worth of a 60 year old to be $187,300. I'm not sure why you're limiting your number to professionals. There's a lot of room between the top 1% and the majority of Americans, so even those "well outside" the top 1% are still likely to be economically disconnected from the majority of Americans. 0 - https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-your-net-worth-and-how-do-you-compare-to-others-2018-09-24 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/whats-your-net-worth-and-h...
- Retric 6y ago
  Congress is paid $174,000 per year which hasn’t increased since 2009 and was worth more back then. That’s a much larger difference than the amount of savings they have. Anyway, 95 percent of today’s House members and 100 percent of the Senate’s have a bachelor’s degree or higher. 1/2 have a law degree and they include several doctors etc. So, based on their current salary and likely professional background having 500k vs 300k of savings actually seems kind of low IMO. I mean running for congress takes more drive than the average person, so presumably higher net worth should be expected. By comparison the net worth of the top 1% for all 60 year olds, collage education or not is over 4 million.
- bostonpete 6y ago
  > I'm not sure why you're limiting your number to professionals. Because pretty much every one in Congress has a professional background? I guess this begs the question whether Congress should be more representative of the population as a whole. To take a (perhaps?) extreme example -- if 6 percent of Americans are high school drop-outs, should 6% of our lawmakers be as well?

djohnston 6y ago

I'm surprised the median net worth is that low

ojbyrne 6y ago

52% of voters in the 2020 election were over 50 [1], so they're not even that disconnected generationally from their voters. The median age of Americans overall is 38 [2], and if you took out minors, you're probably well over 40. Again not that different in age. One could also argue that since the USA is getting older all the time, that gap is going to disappear completely in the next 10-20 years. 1. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/26/what-the-2020-electorate-looks-like-by-party-race-and-ethnicity-age-education-and-religion/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/26/what-the-20... 2. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241494/median-age-of-the-us-population/#:~:text=In%202018%2C%20the%20median%20age,even%20younger%2C%20at%2029.5%20years.&text=The%20year%202035%20is%20expected,population%20of%20the%20United%20States https://www.statista.com/statistics/241494/median-age-of-the....

rconti 6y ago

What an odd comment. The article is not claiming that these people are the most influential people in America, just that these are the most influential octogenarians. The same article could be written for any age range. And commenting about how "scary" it is that there are influential teens or 40somethings would be equally strange. And perhaps there's value in generational diversity? The first half of the comment seems to just serve as a conclusion drawn from the premise in the last line, which doesn't have a ton to do with the article, other than the fact that 3 of the listed people are politicians. But then, there are thousands of politicians across the country, and it stands to reason that longer tenure tends to be paired with a sense of influence. Of course, the article also has activists and donors media types, and so on. But, again, these kinds of people tend to have influence, and are found at many ages.

reaperducer 6y ago

to think that the lives of the majority of Americans could be in the hands of people who are disconnected from them, both economically and generationally, is frightening. It sounds like you place no value on experience. Do you know more today than you did ten years ago? People older than you know what it's like to be your age. People your age don't know what it's like to be older than you are.

op03 6y ago

Being disconnected or connected or representative is not some magic bullet. Obama has already proved you can connect with everyone and make no big dent on any hard issue. There are thousands of simpler examples if you study hard problems. Imho the hardest problems (whether it involves a family or an org or a nation) require old people on the front lines. Not because the front lines are going to drastically move (they take their own sweet time with hard probs), but because who ever is on the front line is going to take a hit or get slaughtered. Why send a young person or a newly wed or someone with kids or someone showing promise on simpler probs to that front line? As soon as you have to deal with your first hard unsolvable problem, what you think matters and doesn't matter changes.

rayiner 6y ago

> The average US senator is 61 years old. The average congressman is 58 years old. And the median net worth on both branches is $500,000. What’s the average age of people old enough to be elected to Congress (> 30)? The median age of eligible voters is 47.5. The median age of actual midterm voters is over 50.

tptacek 6y ago
David Shor has a good bit on the Rationally Speaking podcast (someone tipped me off, I'm not endorsing the podcast itself) about how a big problem in Democratic politics is that participants aren't old enough; campaigns and staff are dominated by 20-something ideologues who don't know how to communicate with the median voter.