Elon Musk recently mentioned that voting rights should be reserved for parents when he claimed the “childless have little stake in the future.” That seems a crazy idea and is quickly dismissed by most people. However, many of the political squabbles we face today are exactly a lack of focus on the future. We have in this country a pervasive short-term vision.
Seniors growl at any changes in Social Security that may affect current payments when the whole system is unsustainable in the long run. Most seniors admit that they realize there will not be the same benefits for their grandchildren from the current system, but still, the majority want no changes. Opposition to dealing with climate issues is fear of changing the status quo. What happened to the notion of planning trees today for future generations, which was the motto at the beginning of Earth Day? Some environmental zealots push the idea of population control to deal with pollution and limited resources. That is the wrong-headed solution. As a species, you either grow in numbers or decline. Many current critics of our nation don’t focus on the future; they also want to erase our past by removing statues and rewriting history. Too many financial decisions, whether Wall St., Congress, or family finances, are short-term. Congress can’t even agree to a yearly budget, an alarming action for any organization.
Turning to something I know better as an educator, too many decisions are made for the current benefit of adults rather than children. The shutdown of schools during the pandemic is a great example. I have been in nearly 2000 schools in my career, both great and not-so-great. Those most successful schools had made the needs of students the priority. The controversial efforts by the Biden administration to forgive student college loans reveal that one of the worst economic decisions in this country was to saddle young families with significant debt. It is a long-term economic obstacle. The easy offers of loans to college students parallel the no down payment real estate loans that led to a housing bust and recession. The current forgiveness efforts are controversial, but making loans so easily available is another poor short-term economic blunder.
There are dozens of examples of short-term thinking; it is time for a highly visible long-term vision for this country. Families with children and grandchildren are the best people to share their thoughts on that vision. Heads of families, more than any other demographic, care more about their offspring’s future and the country’s future. Changing who can vote to only parents may be too drastic a solution. However, a potentially powerful variation of this idea is to support a large-scale poll of heads of families on a future direction they would like to see for the children and grandchildren. It is 2023, and an election is coming up in 2024. The next Congress could adopt this notion of creating a long-term collective vision authored by heads of families. A national vote could be scheduled for 2025 and restricted only to adults with children or grandchildren under 25. The vision would be to set a goal 25 years into the future for the year 2050. All of these children will be adults in 2050. What do heads of families what for their offspring in 2050? Congress should appoint a commission to develop the voting questions and hold the poll in 2025. The goal is to set a long-term vision for our nation and guide intermediate decision-making and the self-interest of political leaders’ actions to benefit the next election cycle. Hopefully, this would redirect our political and economic thinking away from pervasive disastrous short-term thinking.