Queen Elizabeth's reign lasted more than 70 years. When she died at 96, her firstborn son took over at the age of 73.

But those are ceremonial roles. Here, Starrmer was 61 when he was elected two years ago, and the average age of 73. But those are ceremonial roles. Here, Starmar was 61 when he was elected two years ago,

and the average age of members of parliament in the UK is the late 40s. That is a decade younger

than the average in our Congress, and our president is about to turn 80 after winning the White

House back from an 82-year-old Joe Biden.

If the United States was once a young upstart nation, today it is a nation run by and increasingly for old people.

From KERA in Dallas, this is think.

I'm Chris Boyd.

The fancy word for a system where the balance of power rests with elders is gerontocracy.

There is a great deal of evidence to show it's been bad for the country overall, but as my guest will tell us,

it should be possible to more evenly distribute power and wealth across generations in the United States without punishing old people

or playing into the OK boomer disrespect for seniors.

Samuel Moyne is Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University and author of gerontocracy in America.

Now the old are hoarding power and wealth and what to do about it.

His adapted essay from the book for Harper's is titled The Old Guard.

Sam, welcome to think.

Thanks so much for having me.

Okay, just before we get too far into this, you and I are both members of Gen X. We will soon be in that category of people considered old. You are not anti-senior citizen. Not at all. I mean,

that would be some version of self-hatred pretty soon. And, you know, I want to age, you know, just as long as I can. And I actually think we should be more generous to older Americans than we are collectively. But as you said, there's a problem, which is that the extension of our lives has meant that

more and more power is accreting to older and older people.

And so the question is, how do we take care of old people and give them their due respect

while making sure that they're not

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