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On the flip side, it seems evident that younger people tend to vote for the betterment of all, while older people tend to shift toward voting for «themselves».


Why is that evident? Any evidence for it?


I’m talking of the typical left/right split. Where leftist policies tend toward redistribution of wealth to the benefit of broader swathes, while right oriented policies tend to at least lead to more concentration of wealth. Maybe it is an outdated bias, but until now at least my impression is that young people have had a greater tendency toward some form of humanistic idealism.


That's the traditional stereotype, but I have a hard time believing those whose internet presence is mostly manifested as Twitter stan wars and tiktok trends care about greater ideals than the next viral trend


It’s just different forms of selfishness. Many young adults on the left voting for free shit from the government are voting for it because they would get it. They don’t actually care about the VA or whatever other stuff they don’t qualify for.

Then they get decent paying jobs and vote for the party that gets rid of the programs they no longer qualify for in order to reduce their taxation.


>I’m talking of the typical left/right split. Where leftist policies tend toward redistribution of wealth to the benefit of broader swathes

Broader swathes which they're part of. This is just the millennia old has and has-nots, don't fall for wishful thinking this base.


Not true; young, childless people don't think about the next generation, because why would they? It's game-theory optimal for them to maximize laws which benefit them personally, as they don't have to worry about their children growing up with the consequences.

Frankly, society would be a lot better if the childless couldn't vote; leave voting to people who have a stake in society's future!

(And yes, adoption counts, doesn't need to be biological -- not excluding anyone here.)


>Frankly, society would be a lot better if the childless couldn't vote; leave voting to people who have a stake in society's future!

Whoa now. Just because I am childless doesn’t mean I don’t care about future generations. I still have friends and family that do have children and I vote with that in mind.


Maybe idealism is dead and even the youth have been corrupted these days.


Hard to tell whether you are being sarcastic or not; just in case you aren't, it's trivial to confirm that few people vote in a game-theory optimal manner.




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