In Moyn's version, elderly Americans  exploit the young. Moyn's solution, espoused, of course, in the New York Times (April 21), is for the old to be dispossessed of their homes, jobs, accumulated wealth, and political and judicial offices.  These dispossessions and more are needed for "intergenerational justice," by which Moyn means redistribution from the aged to the young, and in order to stop older Americans from "Hoarding America's Potential." Moyn thinks that a poorly educated and undisciplined youth can manage all of America's affairs better than better educated and more disciplined older Americans.  

Moyn builds his case against "gerontocratic society." Older Americans, that is more experienced Americans, are overrepresented in political life and have too much power. This results in inequality and injustice and in regressive public policies.

Moyn claims that older Americans are overrepresented in elections which gives them a stranglehold.  What Moyn means is that older Americans take their citizenship responsibility  more seriously than do the young and actually vote in elections.  By being overrepresented in voting due to youthful disinterest the elderly have amassed "excessive power" that "harms society" by resisting open borders and "environmental remediation" (global warming claims), and denying society youthful creativity and dynamism such as we are currently observing in New York City.

Other evidence of unfairness and inequality are the rise in the median net worth of the elderly and fall in net worth of youths and that the elderly have a larger share of wealth than the young.  Apparently, it is beyond Moyn's comprehension that the elderly got established in life before so many well-paying American jobs were offshored and before robotics and AI cut into remaining good jobs.  It doesn't dawn on Moyn that the elderly have had many more years to accumulate wealth than have youth via such means as paid off home mortgages.

Moyn also blames the elderly for owning more homes than the youth. Again he overlooks the obvious.  The replacement jobs for the "dirty fingernail" jobs sent abroad don't support both a mortgage and a car payment. Why does Moyn think it is the elderly's fault that the median age of a home buyer has risen from 30 in 1981 to 56 in 2024?

Moyn demonstrates faulty reasoning throughout his case against the elderly.  He alleges that the elderly are privileged because more dollars go to the elderly than to children, which he thinks makes it "clear that older Americans have helped widen the chasm between classes in our neoliberal era."  The "more dollars" are of course Social Security and Medicare payments.  But these are retirement age programs sponsored and legislated by liberals, not reactionary elderly, that the elderly have paid for in Social Security and Medicare taxes on their wages and salaries for all of their working life.  It is beyond Moyn's imagination that it is the neoliberal policies, such as offshoring American high-productivity jobs, that have damaged the prospects for American youth. It was not the elderly who took down the ladders of upward mobility that characterized the old American "opportunity society."

In the end Moyn has written a brief for removing any remaining requirements that voting depends on proof of citizenship.  He claims that this reduces voting by younger Americans.  However, the claims are nonsensical.  All any American citizen, regardless of age, has to do to vote is to register.  But Moyn sees registration as a burden the elderly put on the young to make it inconvenient for them to vote.