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The case for a blatantly discriminatory Australian voting system (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by arbilp3@aussie.zone to c/australianpolitics@aussie.zone

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My preferred method is to weight votes according to age: voters below, say, 30 would receive a more heavily weighted vote, voters 30 to 60 would get a less weighted vote, and those over 60 would retain their current single vote. For argument’s sake, you could multiply the vote of under-30s by 1.3 and that of 30- to 60-year-olds by 1.1. People’s ballot papers could be distinguished by colour – under-30s get blue, 30s to 60s green and oldies red – to make counting easier on election night.

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[–] naevaTheRat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Age related cognitive decline is extremely well documented. There is no way around it, you can slow it sometimes but everyone shows decline, it's well established. Particularly between 60-80 decline starts becoming rapid.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41999-025-01377-8 for example is a longitudinal study of several hundred adults. They find:

Advancing age was associated with poorer performance across all cognitive domains. Processing speed and executive indices declined earliest, with significant decrements evident in the early 70 s. Neither linear regression nor ANCOVA using test year revealed any improvement in neuropsychological test performance; instead, significant deterioration across multiple domains was observed.

If you think people can be too young to think clearly because their brain is far enough from a healthy adult human's as to represent one unsuitable for decision making you necessarily must draw the same conclusions around aged brains. It's not bias, it's just decay. We all rot in the end

[–] arbilp3@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

If you think people can be too young to think clearly because their brain is far enough from a healthy adult human’s as to represent one unsuitable for decision making you necessarily must draw the same conclusions around aged brains.

What I am saying is that all of us, no matter our age, are affected by multiple, complex factors and that we shouldn't be too quick to generalise. Our body does wear down but this doesn't have to affect decision-making. Some go to their deaths in their 90s with a very lucid mind, some start getting dementia symptoms in their 40s and some a lot earlier, including childhood. We are all affected by a society which tends to promote health-reducing habits and environments for reasons of profit and then there are genetic factors in the mix as well. There's quite a bit of research at present on healthy old age.

From the moment we are born, we are one day closer to our death but that doesn't mean we must accept how we fare according to general trends. Our intelligence changes, not only declines, and we can play a conscious role in this.

[–] YeahToast@aussie.zone 1 points 1 week ago

You cant use age as a discriminatior for cognition. There's plenty of older people who are more congniscent than people of a younger age.