The Invisible Revolution: How Aging Is Changing America

In some respects, the 2016 election has been a steampunk campaign. Donald Trump, in particular, has proposed a vision of the future that starts in the distant past. He thrills rallies with promises to revive the pre-1970s steel industry and promises a bright future for coal miners.

This may be a successful framing device on the campaign trail. But Trump’s tone here is starkly opposed to his reputation as a business genius. The typical chief executive is intensely present-focused (sometimes even to a fault). Whereas Trump promises the past and calls it future, most business leaders prefer to talk about the future as if it’s the present, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who conjure images of Mars colonization and the instant delivery of any product.

What if presidential candidates took a CEO approach to future-planning? Perhaps they’d spend less time talking about America’s old industries and more time talking about America’s old people.

Read more at The Atlantic.