The wisdom of youth (or lack thereof)

The Nov. 23 edition of the Post-Gazette had letters from two young men urging young people to work for change and to vote.

The first of those letters — from Michael Kilmer — is correct in arguing that young people get ignored by politicians precisely because they tend not to show up at the ballot box. That results in numerous policies that favor us oldsters — I’m 75 — at the expense of young people. (Health care and Social Security come immediately to mind. Inadequate funding for education — consider the debacle in student loans — would be a third.) Mr. Kilmer is right that voting is a civic duty; it may also be self-defense.

I would caution him about his enthusiasm for change. It is generally hard to build something, but much easier to destroy it. And change inevitably destroys the old way of doing things. If that old way had been painfully learned — even though it only “sort of” worked — change may do more harm than good. Take, for example, the repeal of 1933’s Glass-Setagall Act. That repeal may have been the folly that fed the Great Recession of 2008.

Sadly, Mr. Kilmer’s faith in young voters is undercut by the letter from Riley O’Neill. Mr. O’Neill falls full prey to the climate change hysteria being peddled by the demagogic left. Admittedly, Mr. O’Neill’s position aligns with many unthinking older voters similarly swayed by demagoguery. The major difference is that, as a young person, he has much more to lose if shutting down our carbon-based economy turns out to be the wrong move. FRED ANDERSON

Ross