There’s no dispute that an older population will profoundly change the country, from sex and family life to work patterns and politics. The good news is that even though people are living longer, studies show that every year more and more old people are able to take care of themselves. The percentage of people with crippling chronic diseases, like high blood pressure and arthritis, has steadily declined. The caregiving industry is sure to boom with the sheer numbers of the elderly, but predictions of overflowing nursing homes draining the nation’s economic health now seem outdated.
So the big question becomes: what will these older people do with their extra 30 years? For one thing the notion of retirement may change. Healthier and unexcited by the prospect of endless rounds of golf, many older people will want to start new careers, going back to school at 60 or so, moving in and out of jobs. This could lead companies to make their work patterns more flexible to attract this veteran talent. But the potential for intergenerational strain is obvious: will there be enough jobs to accommodate all these people?
Probably not, and not everyone will want to stay working. So the nation’s leisure industry will shift more of its focus to the senior set. There will be extensive travel opportunities for the more affluent. Author Ken Dychtwald is convinced someone will invent a new sport that retirees can play, other than golf. The arts and culture will cater to a more mature audience. As the feminist Betty Friedan, author of ““The Fountain of Youth,’’ says, ““We might see whole new images and heroines not based on the callow stories of youth.’’ New York gerontologist Robert Butler predicts this tumultuous generational change will spark a boom in memoirs, nostalgia and history books.
Family and living arrangements will be transformed. Because of high divorce rates and longer life spans, more women will live alone. At the age of 65 women outnumber men 5-4, but at 85 the ratio is 5-2. That could be a recipe for more poverty and depression and isolation, especially since older people increasingly want to live independently. Experts predict that more adult children will move in with their parents to counteract the loneliness.
And what about romance? Do you really want to live with the same person for 60 years? Divorce has already created a kind of serial monogamy. Longer lives might do the same, as widows and widowers find each other. But they won’t necessarily get remarried. Experts think the aged would be more likely to share households, as part of a broader trend to communal living among unrelated adults.
Our products, too, will be reshaped by the demographic shift. Newspapers will have larger type. Computerized houses, in which a remote control operates doors and windows, will become more widespread.
One thing isn’t likely to change: the gap between rich and poor. People who haven’t been able to sock away retirement money will continue to lead more constricted lives than the rich. But rich or poor, 65 or 95, the aged can count on one benefit: they’ll have plenty of votes to set the national agenda.
