Last week Great Britain voted to withdraw from the European Union, causing the world's financial markets to tremble and forcing many Americans to ask themselves the question: "What is the European Union?"
Look, I'm no expert on the EU either, but I do enjoy the horse-race aspect of these sorts of things and a polling number from the EU referendum jumped out at me. Basically, every person under the age of 40 voted for England to remain in the EU, and every person over 65 voted that England should leave.
What strikes me about this is that people who have stopped working and will soon be DEAD, have made a decision making life for young people much more difficult: for them to move about and be free to get jobs as part of the Global economy. This doesn't seem fair. Why should old geezers get to determine what happens to the next generation? They are already cushy on entitlements, watching TV 14 hours a day and having dinner at 4:30pm. Their life is, by all intensive purposes, already over.
And if you think I am counting myself as a smart young person, I am not. For example, just last week I discovered that you could find bus times RIGHT ON GOOGLE MAPS. This was mind- blowing to me. "You mean I don't have to go to the COTA website and download a schedule PDF? I just plug in where I am going and press on the bus icon? WHAAAA?? Amazing!!!"
I was wondering why that picture of the bus was on my phone. Now I know.
My point being, I'm somewhere between being useful and informed and clueless and hopelessly out of touch. And, I'm trending in the wrong direction. So why, when I turn 65 years of age, should I be allowed to vote on policies that will have zero impact on me? I'm not sure i deserve the right. Just bring a phony paper ballot around the senior rec center every other Wednesday so I feel included in the process and less lonely. Oh, and keep your government hands OFF my sweet government single payer Medicare plan and I will be fine.
Colin Gawel writes these sorts of things on slow afternoons at Colin's Coffee and he has to turn off the Reds because the suck so bad. He founded Pencilstorm and plays in the band Watershed.