I often think about survivor bias. Like, we see a lot of old people. Thus we assume that we'll probably also grow to old age. At least I did. It was only when my wife had cancer that I realized that all the dead people just aren't around anymore to tell us that they died. We only get to see the survivors.
To drive this home, here's something I overheard on IRC: "You always hear about dolphins saving people from drowning, but you never hear about all the people dolphins have dragged out to sea."
@kensanata cool, thanks for helping me realize I will probably die young.
@kensanata One reason old people tend to be more conservative than young ones is that poor people tend not to live til they’re old.
@wrenpile Do you have a source for this? It could be other things, too. Maybe change generally benefits the young who have not established themselves. Once you have something, be it a home, a family, a job, anything really, your outlook starts changing.
@kensanata There are lots of sources. Here’s one: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/04/for-life-expectancy-money-matters/
I didn’t say this was the only reason, just *one* reason.
The source of that quote according to IRC: "Dolphins get a lot of good publicity for the drowning swimmers they push back to shore, but what you don’t hear about is the many people they push farther out to sea! Dolphins aren’t smart. They just like pushing things." • Dwight Schrute, The Office