November 03, 2006
Is this the end of old age?
By Ken Dychtwald His latest book, The Power Years: A User’s Guide To The Rest Of Your Life, jumped to the top of bestseller lists. Here, in the first of a two-part series specially written for The Sun, the 56-year-old American author, psychologist and government adviser, explains how the “baby boomers” continue to turn the clock back and go from strength to strength. SIXTY years ago, as World War Two drew to a close, a “revolution” began. After dropping for centuries, birth rates began to rise around the world. In the US the birth rate rose from 2.1 births per woman in the 1930s to 3.8, a boom that produced 76million children between 1946 and 1964. In the UK birth rates peaked in the early 1960s, at 2.8 births per woman, before sinking to 1.7 today. This massive baby boom is now being felt as an enormous “age wave.”
DR KEN DYCHTWALD is widely regarded as the world’s leading expert on the problems of global ageing.
In the UK, the age 55-plus population will GROW by almost 30 per cent between 2000 and 2020, while the under-45 population will SHRINK by five per cent.
Globally, the population of elders will be growing five times faster than younger populations for several decades.
The baby boomers, as we came to be known, have been likened by to “a pig moving through a python.”
At each stage of our lives the needs and desires of our massive generation have become the dominant concerns of popular culture and business.
Boomers don’t just populate existing life stages or consumer trends, we transform them. We didn’t just eat food — our migration through the teenage years spawned the fast-food industry.
We didn’t just wear clothes — we transformed the fashion industry, creating such trends as blue jeans and bell- bottoms. We didn’t just date and marry — we broke taboos of divorce and transformed the traditional models of the nuclear family. We didn’t just go to work — we transformed the workplace, broke the mould of lifetime employment.
And the women of our generation have become the most highly educated, employed and empowered in history. In our youth we coined the phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over 30” to express our defiance for the rigid lifestyles and conventions of our parents’ generation.
But today, with not one boomer under the age of 40, we will, once again, defy convention.
Because of our overwhelming size, economic power and anti-authoritarian style, the boomers will continue to revolutionise societies, products, markets — even expectations for how life should be organised, structured, and lived.
In 1800, the average life expectancy was less than 40 years. Thanks to advances in public health, nutrition and lifestyles, today the average lifetime has stretched to more than 78 years in the UK.
Meanwhile, if you have already made it to 50 you can expect to live at least until you are 85. Incredibly, two-thirds of all those who have made it to age 65 in the history of mankind are alive today.
And, thanks to impending scientific breakthroughs in medicine, pharmacology and stem cell research, these numbers will probably keep increasing.
In the years ahead, living to 90 or even 100 may become commonplace. This will change the pattern of society. Once, we grew up, went to school, worked hard while marrying and rearing a family, then we died. Everything had its place and life was too short for second chances. Increased longevity transforms this model. All around us there is a different approach, where we move in and out of careers, with periods of rest and re-training. While we may end up working longer, rather than saving all of our leisure for the end of our lives, regular breaks throughout adulthood could become the norm. The next stage shouldn’t be the frustrating descent that too many of today’s retirees are experiencing. Instead of viewing life after 40 as a time of decline, retreat and withdrawal, we are coming to see this as a terrific new opportunity to re-evaluate our lives, consider our new options and chart new courses. We are now pushing into middlescence, a whole new period of discovery and personal growth as we make the most of the many fruitful decades that lie ahead. We will discover new passions and explore long-dormant desires. There are more 40, 50 and 60-year-olds running marathons, buying Harley Davidson motorbikes, starting new careers, going back to college, falling in love or going to rock concerts (or playing in the concerts) than ever before. Late achievement, while multiplying in frequency, isn’t altogether new. George Bernard Shaw was at work on a new play when he died aged 94. Picasso painted Rape Of The Sabine Women at 81. At 100, Ichijirou Araya climbed Mount Fuji.
Germany’s Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, selected 65 to be the first official retirement age in 1889 — when the average life expectancy was only 45! Perhaps the word retirement one day will fall out of practice. Our retirement years could become our freedom years, providing us the time we never had to build new relationships and nurture old ones; to step back from our demanding work schedules and work and play at pastimes that engage and excite us; to go back to school; to mentor and yes, to travel and relax. Phased retirements, part-time and flexi-time work and “rehirements” will also become viable options for mature adults who will either need to or want to continue working. I recently helped direct a massive study of emerging attitudes about ageing, maturity and retirement around the globe. The Future Of Retirement survey — sponsored by HSBC and conducted in collaboration with Age Wave, market research firm Harris Interactive and The Oxford Institute of Ageing — interviewed more than 20,000 adults in 20 countries. There is overwhelming agreement that people don’t want to be judged just by their age; they want to be judged by their energy, attitude and what they are making of their lives. In more developed regions, people overwhelmingly rejected the notion of retiring to the rocking chair or 19th hole. Instead, a new model of retirement is emerging — a vibrant landscape filled with new beginnings and, for many, continued social involvement and productivity — a far more active model of ageing. In the survey, 77 per cent of British employers are worried about an impending “brain drain” and are concerned that when their older workers retire they will lose valuable knowledge and skills. As the age wave gains more momentum over the next decade, employers will need to develop new capabilities in attracting and motivating older workers. Perhaps we may even decide to retire retirement.