Given that Americans must wait 18 years to vote, why are we allowing individuals older than mean age of death in the U.S to hold positions of power. An age limit of 75 years old seems more than fair, given the heightened risk of conditions like stroke and the rapid cognitive decline that often comes with old age. Our government should consist of leaders who we can comfortably expect to survive their full term.
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I agree that cognitive function is a more accurate measure than age for ability to serve. However, an age limit to start a term provides an easy to implement system. The issues with cognitive function testing are that individuals can study for tests, appearing to function higher than they do. Additionally, at what point can cognitive decline be determined “too severe” to allow an individual to serve? Other questions also arise; how can individual differences be accounted for? Should testing occur during a term, with a failing score leading to immediate dismissal? If one individual performs poorly in a short-term memory section for instance, is this enough to stop them from serving?
Overall, while cognitive function would be ideal to assess one day, it seems that a strict age cut off would prevent most of the issues we are seeing from elderly politicians serving.