Representation By Cohort

I thought that this table, drawn from information from Pew Research and from the site of the U. S. House of Representatives, might be interesting:

Cohort	% of adult population	% of U. S. House members
Silent Generation	10.00	8.28
Baby Boomers	34.05	57.47
Generation X	31.56	27.13
Millennials	34.71	7.13

Among Democrats nearly all of the Congressional leadership are members of the Silent Generation—all but Chuck Schumer who’s a Baby Boomer.

It would be interesting to see how those percentages line up with eligible adults or with eligible adults with incomes above median income. I’ll leave that exercise for someone else to work out.

I think there are a number of different ways of looking at it. One way and I suspect it is the most common view is that Baby Boomers are tremendously over-represented. Another way is that public service marks the culmination of a career and one would expect the ages of House members and even more so members of the Senate to skew higher. There’s probably a bit of truth in that.

Another way of looking at it is that age is irrelevant other than the constitutional requirements. The best candidates should serve regardless of age. Somehow that logic does not seem to apply to race but there you have it.

My own opinion is that the Congress is just too old. When you take the enormous power wielded by the leadership into account, the Silent Generation is still calling the shots and have been for decades. All of them should retire as should all of the Baby Boomers who are over 65. They should make room for younger members. Most of those younger members will probably be Gen Xers.