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In December, UK’s House of Lords issued a landmark report, Preparing for an ageing society, which concluded that an older populace is a permanent feature of modern societies globally, the result of longer lives and lower birth rates. The report attempts to take a systemic approach to the problem, seeing this as an economic and social transition.
What seems to worry the House of Lords the most is the economic fallout. Concerned about a shrinking workforce, the report calls for citizens to keep working for more years.
That framing raises the hackles of Jane Barratt, an international expert on Aging policy, who argues that older adults have more value than merely as potential cogs in the economic machinery. “Ageing is primarily framed as a fiscal risk to be managed,” she complains. ”Paid work becomes the dominant signal of value. Care is recognized mainly for its impact on labor supply. Health is instrumentalized rather than held as a public good across the life course.”
On the other hand, at least someone in power is finally noticing. That’s a start.
Here’s the bigger picture, bird’s eye view:
We are enjoying longer lives, in greater numbers than ever before. But the world we inhabit was built for a different reality. As the Stanford Center on Longevity puts it, “100-year lives are increasingly common. Yet our institutions, economic policies, social and cultural norms have not kept pace.”
Stanford offers a calm, rational outlook. Then there’s the panic reaction: “We are witnessing the slow unravelling of three interconnected systems: health, wealth, and work,” write Mahad Safar and Adam Skali of the World Economic Forum. “Each is under pressure and each reinforces the others’ vulnerabilities.”
Let’s zoom in for a closer look at each institution and norm.
Declining populations, either currently or projected soon, have nations scrambling to find more bodies to maintain their current workforce. Older adults enjoying longer and healthier lives would be a natural place to look for employees – as the House of Lords report suggests. Yet current employer policies – such as mandatory Retirement age – are at cross-purposes with that pursuit.
Pivoting from one career field to another is already common. That would suggest a strong need for frequent intervals of further Education and retraining – another practice not common to most business environments.
What allows the American healthcare “system,” a jerry-rigged Rube Goldberg-like conglomeration of disconnected parts, to function at all is the labors of millions of unpaid caregivers. (The costs of long-term care services and facilities, the only alternative for families, continue to reach for the stratosphere.) Being a caregiver restricts workforce participation and spurs earlier exits from the labor force. Meanwhile the system focuses its expertise and dollars on treating diseases rather than encouraging disease prevention through healthy Lifestyle choices.
U.S. businesses have abandoned Pension plans in favor of passing financial planning responsibility (and risk) onto employees through 401(k) plans. About 80% of older adult households lack the savings and investments to cover retirements of 20 to 30 years, or the reserves to weather a major healthcare emergency.
Colleges and universities are designed to attract and serve recent high school graduates. Unfortunately for them, the next 10 years brings them face to face with the “18-22 demographic cliff,” a projected 15-20% drop in the traditional college-age population. Older adults with the time and interest to learn are a potential alternative to bolster enrollments, as are adults returning to learn new skill sets for career advancement or career change. But institutional change in academia makes snails look speedy.
In summary, it is our privilege (or burden, depending on your mindset) to go where no generation has gone before, and to go there long before the world is ready to accommodate us. Eventually, our frustrations may force institutions to reorient themselves to serve older adults. Perhaps our children’s generation will be the beneficiaries. Us? Not likely.
Nothing about this will be easy, in other words. We’ll have to be content with banging on doors and tearing down barricades to smooth a path for our descendants. Or, as songwriter Iris DeMent puts it, to be “working on a world I may never see.”
