REPOST: Age of Disruption, "Six-Chart Sunday (#23) – God Bless the USA"
Another week, another substack rec’d by The Free Press.
Age of Disruption describes itself as “Bruce Mehlman's Substack, where we share (1) quarterly analyses looking at trends in politics & policy and (2) invitations to live events with new authors & leaders.” Who doesn’t love graphs? Good job on this man for keeping up with it for nearly 6 months!
I rec going through his other content. Most of it relates to political data. But even then, it goes beyond the standard, boring talking points. Take for example Six-Chart Sunday (#18): Old Guys Rule (May 26, 2024) that points out:
“The median age of current national leaders is 62, as of May 1, 2024.”
“The current class of (US) lawmakers is one of the oldest in history, with an overall median age of 59.”
“the average age of starting S&P 1500 CEOs reaching an all-time high of 56.2 years”
“today’s average actor age has reached the mid-40s and is steadily climbing toward 50.”
“Americans age 70 and older now hold nearly 26% of household wealth”
In countries that Freedom House classifies as ‘not free,’ the median age of the national leader is 68. That compares with 62 in countries that are classified as ‘partly free’ and 60 in countries classified as ‘free.’
In those examples, we see the shocking high age of leaders. But if you look at the graphs, you see something worse: a trend. I hate trends. It seems like all of those average ages for _____ will increase further. I wish I could attribute this to longer life expectancy, but I blame 1. greed 2. distrust in Milleneals and Gen-Z.
Here is the June 30th article I’m resharing below: https://brucemehlman.substack.com/p/six-chart-sunday-24-exceptional
Hey, Mehlman, please do a series to combat the antisemitic charts about alleged Jews controlling media and politics. I’d love for your 10K followers to know that near 80% of US Presidents are Protestant (0% were Jewish), and the top political donors are US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Realtors, PhRMA, AMA and Business Roundtable (AIPAC doesn’t even break the top 20).
Six-Chart Sunday (#23) – God Bless the USA
6 Infographics from the week + 1 video (the great Mitch Daniels)
Bruce Mehlman Jun 30, 2024
Mid-way through Thursday’s Presidential debate, after briefly Googling nice homes for sale in New Zealand, I zoomed out to consider the bigger picture. It’s hard not to enter July 4th weekend thankful for our nation’s many blessings, even as we strive to form a more perfect union. Sure, we have a lot of challenges… but where else would you rather live? Here’s how the world votes with its feet:
1.More people want to move here than anywhere else.
2. More people want to invest here than anywhere else. (Stock markets below, 2023 FDI here).
3. More people want to study here than anywhere else (Top 30 in chart by Russell Lim).
4. More people want to start businesses here than anywhere else.
5. Innovators are more-empowered to invent here than nearly anywhere else.
6. We produce more medal-winning Olympic athletes than anywhere else (ready for Paris!)
Are we perfect? Of course not. America is also exceptional in bad ways including gun violence, obesity, deaths of despair, excessive incarceration, unaffordable healthcare, insufficient housing, lack of trust in institutions, income inequality, etc.
But this Independence Day I choose to focus on the glass half full & count our myriad blessings. We’ll find a way through... Americans always do. Happy 4th!
As a proud US Citizen, I love to see this stuff! Well, not the obesity rates (that rival Gaza) or the incarceration rates or the insufficient housing or lack of trust in institutions. Or the Democracy Index. Or coalitions and grand coalitions or even constitutional amendments (you know you’re supposed to update docs… right?).
Appreciate the good. There’s many reasons people (not me) still dream of living in US.
