Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

that_jedi_girl t1_iqmea69 wrote

This is so much better than your original. Definitely shows that we're not in a new situation, without telling a false story about how there have been relatively drastic changes in that age gap since the 60s.

286

JolietJakeLebowski OP t1_iqmf7th wrote

I dunno about 'false': an 8-year, 25% drop in the 13 years between '68-'81 is still pretty drastic. But in hindsight I do agree with you guys that this graph is much better (and more representative) than the old one.

78

that_jedi_girl t1_iqmfni3 wrote

Fair! I think we have different definitions of relatively drastic here. This shows a quick 25% drop in a way that I can immeadiately recognize, instead of initially thinking it's closer to 100% before I take in all the labels and their meaning.

21

JolietJakeLebowski OP t1_iqmgiel wrote

Yep, in hindsight I agree this one is much clearer and faster to read than the old one.

11

Waitwhonow t1_iqndd8n wrote

Insight from the chart!!

What would be fascinating to see the population growth chart added year as well.

Based on what is being shown here- the median age dropped from the mid 60s to the 80s

So that ‘ may’ mean that during the hippie revolution/the 60s a lot of fucking was done, which drastically increased the number of people in the country( or even immigration changes?!?) and that dropped the median age by quite a lot( and remained constant since then)

But also means that more ‘younger’ people started joining the congress due to all the various movements back then( civil rights/women rights etc) which dropped the average age of the senate.

But, in the 80s, younger people just stopped joining the senate( in the same pace lt did in the 60s/70s) and the average age started creeping up again- to its maximum today.

Maybe because inflation and war forced the younger generation( of the 80s) to just give it up and join the workforce- rather than the congress.

And started electing older folks into office ( aka Reagen and republicans)

Tldr: it looks like boomers just gave up the ‘fight’ after all the drugs and rock and roll, and let the ‘ older generation’ handle it again, and now that they are the ‘older generation’ they dont want to give up the power( coupled with a lack of participation by millennials for myriad of reasons)

2