Letters | From the US president to Hong Kong taxi drivers, age must not be allowed to risk lives

Readers discuss whether elderly people should hold positions of great responsibility, and Australia’s stance in the US-China tussle

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President Joe Biden speaks about the banking system at the White House in Washington, on March 13. Photo: AP

Published: 2:30pm, 16 Mar 2023

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US President Joe Biden’s gaffes are well documented. For example, while delivering a speech in September last year at the White House, he called on a congresswoman who had recently passed away in a car accident. In January that year, while leaving a room following a White House event, he didn’t realise his microphone was still on and referred to a journalist using abusive language.

There will be a presidential election next year. Already the historically oldest US president in office, Biden could possibly run for re-election. While the White House doctor says he’s healthy and fit, he had a cancerous skin lesion removed in February. Concerns about his health and strength are not unreasonable given that he leads the most powerful nation on Earth.

On the other side of the world in Hong Kong, we have had a spate of accidents involving elderly drivers of vehicles. On March 5, an 84-year-old driver ploughed into pedestrians at a junction in Fortress Hill, leaving two critically injured. Accidents such as this have sparked discussion over whether taxi driver licences should be issued to elderly people.

On the one hand, we have an elderly president who has sole authority to press the country’s nuclear button, on the other an elderly taxi driver. The former can cause widespread death and destruction around the world, although his decision would presumably be made in consultation with others; the latter, the death of at least a few people, for which he would be individually responsible.

Both the US president and elderly Hong Kong taxi drivers should consider retirement from their current jobs. If they need to keep themselves occupied in their senior years, or need the money, they should find a job that does not endanger human lives.