Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat
Pentagon-Funded Study Warns Dementia Among U.S. Officials Poses National Security Threat
Sens. Mitch McConnell and Dianne Feinstein, who have access to top-secret information, recently had public health episodes.
This title almost reads like The Onion.
On a serious note, why? These people (on both sides) have enough money saved, health benefits etc to comfortably retire. Why don’t they? Are they so bought and paid for that their ‘investors’ won’t let them?
55The US legislatures give a lot of power based on seniority. There's a lot of incentive for a party to keep members in office as long as possible.
30Power. And need to feel useful.
28Maybe we can increase the laughing stock factor so there's less of a pull. Maybe then they'll have some better candidates?
To be fair, after trump biden has a big act to follow and going for a nap hardly cuts the mustard...
I don't think it'll work with the batshit crazy politics the us has, just fuels the division
4
When these people are strong and healthy they need to foster the next generations so that the party has a good idea who their successor should be so that there party doesn't fall into shambles and infighting every time one of them dies or retires.
The problem is that they don't do that. It is in their interest that there are no viable alternatives to them because good alternatives to them threaten their power. Until they are suddenly 80 that is and nobody knows how to replace them so they have to sit on their thrones and hold on for as long as possible.
23Why should they retire? They don't actually do anything. They figure they might as well be there to soak up the corrupt funds instead of some other placeholder.
11People who made it that far up are usually very driven, their job is their whole identity.
It's probably hard to walk away from something they dedicated so much of their life to. More so if it involved sacrificing time for relationships, family, friends, etc.
7Also their job is probably pretty good. I mean, you probably don’t really have bad days the way the rest of the working world does.
I’m self employed and I love what I do, I can’t imagine ever walking away from it. I slow down my pace as I get older, but I won’t stop completely.
3
Someone else recently explained it best: It's elderly abuse.
The entourage encircling these elderly congressional leaders are profiting greatly. As soon as these senators retire, these leeches lose nearly everything.
It's a Weekend At Bernie's movie plot, but with extra steps.
6Seniority plays a major role in committee appointments. Sure, you could replace the senile 95 year old who doesn't know the cold war is over with a younger candidate, but that senile 95 year old has been in Congress for longer than the other guy has been alive, and he's on some important committees because of it that the younger candidate wouldn't be able to be in
6Some of them have a serious insider trading addiction
6>Are they so bought and paid for that their ‘investors’ won’t let them?Yes
5
No shit? Really? Wow, thanks guys! I never would have guessed that were it not for the hard working folks at the Pentagon!
😐
41Man.. the US is not in a good place
32There really needs to be term limits for Congresspeople.
25True, but this is only part of the solution. Term limits can cause the real power locus to move to those unlimited proximate positions. A holistic solution involving congressional term limits, limits on staff and lobbyists, etc that all work in concert to prevent hoarding of power is what's needed.
5This would solve the issue without being ableist
5age limits; term limits have some actual negatives like getting rid of good representatives and increasing corruption.
3
Biden being one of them
13I actually like the gerontocracy. I think it rules. Let's see how far we can push it, let's get a 125 year old president
8DAE in bad country the rulers were increasingly out of touch old people
5Well yeah. No one over the age of 60 is mentally fit to work any job (especially not in a decision making role). Retirement age should be 55.
-8No one over the age of 60 is mentally fit to work any job
Why do you think this?
4I strongly disagree and my job is researching Alzheimer's and age-related cognitive decline
Age-related decline is minor and Alzheimer's is rare. Neither should play a role in forced retirement
3