Elon Musk in a recent interview said that the United States has a "very, very ancient leadership"

"Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a recent interview said that the United States has a "very, very ancient leadership" and questioned how leading figures can "stay in touch with the people" if they are several generations removed from most of the population."

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-us-has-ancient-leadership-innovation-gerontocracy-2022-3

Any thoughts?

 

Musk himself is 50. He's not exactly a spring chicken anymore. How in touch is he with the people under him?

 

Well he wasn't talking about himself.
He was talking about average age of the US population.

"Musk then said that a "gerontocracy" — where a government is essentially controlled by citizens significantly older than the bulk of the population — is not healthy.
Musk said he'd like to see political leaders be within 10-20 years of the average population age."

Last time I checked the Median age of the US population was around 40.

 

To me it's natural that elders are a significant respected group among the leadership.

 

Yep. Been a hallmark of at least one group I can think of, for 5,000+ years. One of their most famous leaders lived to 120, IIRC.

 

Elders, maybe. But not elderly.

The world is a really, REALLY different place than it used to be 40-50 years ago, if only for the internet.

 

Sorry - that should be 4,000 years. (Neither a millennium nor a billion dollars is what it used to be.) I made the mistake of using the Jewish calendar (Current year 5782). That calendar dates from early estimates of Garden of Eden days - not foundation of the Jewish faith. That's traditionally associated with Abraham, about 4,000 years ago. (About 1000 years before Moses, whom I mentioned.)

 

Maybe Elon Musk should talk about what he actually knows. For example, whether or not overhyped extreme-high-net-worth individuals command too much attention and/or have too much influence.