Youth is wasted on the young...

My grandfather use to joke (not really) that youth was wasted on the young and that knowledge was wasted on the old.  His reasoning behind this is that young people are too "dumb" to know that they don't know anything and the old know they know it all but are so old they forget what they know or they die before they can effectively share the information.

Ever wonder why the older you get the larger percentage you get to vote?  Well lets look at some numbers:
*which can be found at http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0399.pdf*

Lets look at Presidential Election years:

In 1996 of registered voters you have 67% 65+ age group voting, compared to 31.2% of 18-20 year olds, and even only 33.4% of  21-24 year olds.  Those two younger age groups together do not beat the elderly voting group.

Now in 2000 of registered voters you have 67.6% in the 65+ age group voting, compared to 28.4% of 18-20 year olds, and only 35% of the 21-24 year olds.

In 2004 same story, 68.9% of 65+ year olds and 41% of 18-20 year olds and 42% of 21-24 year olds.  While these numbers have improved over the years the are still no where near the numbers of the 65+.

Finally the best showing for the youngsters is in 2008, while the 65+ held strong at 68%, the 18-20 years olds were at 41% and the 21-24 year olds showed great support at 46.6%.

Now some might argue that the are more elderly people and that is why they have higher voting numbers.  I don't know who these people are but they clearly are in the uninformed catergory to think that the 65+ has the largest population.

According to recent Census data our 65+ pales in comparsion to our 18-24 age grouping.  The 18-24 age group is double that of the 65+ age group.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0007.pdf

So back to the original question, why are the older voting blocks so much bigger?  It really comes down to knowledge.  The older you are the more knowledge you gain on how the political system affects you.  Younger citizens think that they are not directly impacted by policies made by politicians and therefore feel as if they have no need to vote.  And then as they age they begin to realize that it does matter and every vote does count.  So what ends up happening is that the smallest section of our society determines the course our country goes in because they have the strongest voting percentages.