Apparently one in five girls born now can expect to live to the age of one hundred. They will see the twenty-second century. For someone born in the twentieth century that is something I struggle to comprehend without my mind going all sci-fiction. Imagining it will be similar to what was expected in the year two thousand by those in the sixties is probably the easiest way to give you an idea. I could now go into wandering through the realms of possibilities but will resist the temptation. This is more about an ageing population.
We already have ageing populations in many parts of the world. If memory serves me then I think a populace needs two point one children born per couple for the population to maintain an average age capable of working, paying taxes and keeping society going. The idea of per couple sounds like a strange one considering relationships don’t quite work in that traditional way anymore but those statistics were perhaps created when it was more relevant. An ageing population is seen as a sign that in the long term a country will have serious problems but I wonder if this isn’t the wrong way to look at things.
The three phase life that has been the cornerstone of how people lived in the last hundred years is starting to look like a part of the past. The three phases are childhood education, working life and retirement. Childhood education is something that seems to be stretching into our twenties now. People seem less inclined to finish education and settle down into adult life instead waiting until they get into their thirties. Work life is no longer about working for one company your whole career or even one field the entire time. It is now far more common to jump from company to company as well as being possible to change careers in some cases multiple times. These two parts are I believe pretty obvious, people know this because they are living this. I am sharing no groundbreaking ideas.
What is worth addressing though is retirement and the role of people in society as they age. If populations are getting older, one thread that goes around is that the elderly are a drain on society. Does that miss possibilities though? We can’t afford to pay their pensions is a common one. The retirement age in the UK has gone up in the last few years and I imagine if we carry on like this and I make it that far it will have gone up a few more times before I become eligible. Modern medicine, improved diets and understanding of healthy living will keep people alive longer but we need to think about their quality of life. What this doesn’t mean though is improve their quality of life and flog them in the workplace until they – we – drop.
If people have worked for forty or fifty years, they may not physically be capable anymore but they offer something people of younger generations don’t have. There once was a time when communities looked to the elders for understanding and wisdom. They weren’t always viewed as a drain who should be put in nursing homes to wait for death. If we are going to have ageing populations, and people living longer who are unable to work and who after forty years have earnt the right not to, we need to find ways of including these people in a way in which they’re not viewed as a burden. To do this we need to stop viewing peoples worth and value through economic eyes and instead through community based compassionate ones. People of all ages have something to offer. The young can learn from the old just as the old can gain vitality and life from the young. We can see the differing values but first we must learn how. Maybe if we had less old people and more elders we may see a way how.
Observations and Misunderstandings 