With the nation transfixed by war overseas, many domestic policy issues have received little attention over the past year several years. High on the list of domestic issues that no longer gets very much coverage is the progressive aging of United States society and its impact down the road. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of people over the age of 65 will double from 35 million to nearly 72 million by the year 2030. Another way to look at the data is that even taking into account total population growth, seniors as a percentage of the total population will rise from a little over 12 percent to at least 20 percent during the next 20-odd years. This shift in the overall age of the U.S. population has the possibility of fundamentally changing both the lives and politics of U.S. citizens. One of the reasons this shift is significant is that the political participation rates of older voters are much higher than the participation rates of the younger population. In U.S. Census Bureau data documenting the 2004 presidential election, the gap between voting rates between the young and the old is large enough to cause serious concern. In 2004, for 18- to 24-year-olds, just fewer than 45 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot. The 24-45 year age group had the same turnout. For voters 45 and older, the participation rate skyrocketed to 67 percent. Clearly, there is a substantial gap that expands the voting power of seniors beyond their not insignificant numbers. The combination of higher voting rates and an increasingly large elderly population presages a shift in U.S. politics toward issues that concern the elderly. Now, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. After all, voters should be concerned with issues that affect them individually. However, the vast majority of the United States' entitlement programs benefit the elderly. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all help to subsidize the livelihood of senior citizens. According to an Associated Press news report, in 2004 entitlement programs already consumed half of the federal budget. In the coming years, these entitlement programs will consume an even bigger chunk of the budget as more people become eligible for benefits. With the oldest portion of the electorate increasing at a faster rate than the younger part, I worry that the short-term self-interest of seniors and politicians might increase and expand these programs beyond the boundaries they currently occupy. After all, wouldn't promising an increase in Medicare coverage or Social Security payments be a wonderful way to get some more votes? Heck, when a politician can count on so many seniors to take the time to go to the ballot box, the option starts to look pretty attractive. As for seniors, who wants to turn down more money? While the political mindset of seniors is much more complicated in reality, this is the kind of politics that I fear may become more commonplace as the population ages. The age shift underway will also transform local politics. One of the largest local issues influenced by an aging population are local school systems. Most public school systems receive a large portion of their funding through local property taxes. As the population ages, an increasing amount of people live on a fixed income. This can make it difficult to pay high property taxes every year and puts pressure on many local governments to lower them. This in turn can decrease the funding available for students. While I sympathize, there is a very large caveat to giving in to this temptation. At first glance, a new high school might not seem particularly necessary to a 72-year-old retiree who will have to pay for part of it. However, the new generations of kids who flow through the high school will one day pay for that retiree's government benefits through taxes on their salaries and wages. Refusing to fund adequately school systems for short-term gain simply hurts everyone in the long run. Beyond the issues of entitlement programs and education, there are dozens of other issues that the age shift will impact. My hope is that with genuine efforts to educate the public about complicated issues, the potentially damaging politics surrounding entitlement programs or school systems will be avoided. The aging of society doesn't have to devolve into a generational conflict, and through careful planning the side effects that come along with this aging can be mitigated. Andrew Wagner ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in computer science and political science.