RSLN JANUARY

Seven Lakes News January Edition Page 17
I am a 65-year-old man. When my
grandfather was my age, he carried
a walking stick and was shuffling
towards his grave. Happily, my own
prospects — and those of many
of the 760 million people in the
world who are over the age of 60 —
couldn’t be more different.
Statistics show all too clearly why we
cannot afford to stick our heads in
the sand and continue to view older
people as a sickly burden rather
than a valuable resource. At the end
of the 19th century, in Germany, Bismarck
invented the social security
system we know today. At that time,
few people reached the age of 65,
and those who did were likely to be
in poor health.
Now, 130 years later, we still deal
with aging as if it was the 19th
century. Life expectancy is now
is 35 years longer than it was in
Bismarck’s time. Those 30 years of
life after work must be made productive.
If not, the cost of maintaining a
rapidly growing older population will
have a devastating effect on younger
generations, who simply won’t be
able to generate the tax income to
support older people’s quality of life
and growing healthcare costs.
We need an entirely different approach,
something that recognizes
that growing into old age is a long
transition taking 20 or 30 years,
rather than a sudden cutting off
point. It should mean more flexibility
in the workplace. It should include
staggered retirements and a greater
use of sabbaticals, so that an
older person can go away for a year,
recharge his or her batteries, and
come back with more energy and
new skills.
Us baby boomers are precisely the
generation who are bringing about
this revolution. Never before have we
seen a cohort hitting the age of 65
who are so well informed, so wealthy
and in such good health. In the same
way that my generation transformed
adolescence into a protracted period
of experimentation, creativity and
rebellion, so too are we redefining
what it means to age.
The New “Boomers”
We will not allow our rights to be
ignored and we will not be fobbed off
with the idea that all we are fit for is
a spot of light volunteering. If we fail
to adapt to the new reality, we risk a
social convulsion, a fracture dividing
the generations which pits one set of
interests against another.
Baby boomers are leading the way,
showing younger people that getting
old is the best thing that can happen
to them. There is only one alternative
to aging.
There are so many older adults in
Florida that they’ve created their
own city. The Villages, located smack
in the center of the state, has a
population of 157,000 people. By
design and by fiat, virtually all of its
residents are over the age of 55. The
Villages has its own culture, its own
norms, its own lifestyle. The primary
mode of transportation is the golf
cart. Tens of thousands of the little
white vehicles crisscross the landscape.
Accordingly, the community’s
slogan is “Free golf for life!” It is the
sort of arrangement one looks at
and says, “Only in Florida.”
But Florida is not as unique as you
might think. One of America’s numerous
(and sometimes infamous)
Baby Boomers turns 65 every eight
seconds. In about a decade, we will
become a nation of Florida’s.
Making such a society livable will require
far more than golf carts. It will
demand a great deal from all of us
— entrepreneurs, employers, policymakers
and, yes, as individuals. In a
world in which nearly half the population
is over the age of 50, we will
have to start thinking of older people
differently, more expansively.
In the mid-to-late 1800s, antiquated
medical theory suggested that the
only healthy thing for older adults to
do was rest. Surviving well into the
21st century is the idea that older
people are “supposed” to be consumers
of ideas, work, products and
culture, but never producers: always
takers; never givers.
Today, ask anyone over the age of 60
or so if she wants to sit in a rocking
chair for the rest of her life — on
average, a far longer life than at the
turn of the 20th century — and they
will laugh you out of the room.
Living longer and better may mean
working longer. It may mean a lifetime
of learning and growth. We may
see older adults in roles to which we
are not accustomed: retail, manufacturing,
teaching and delivering
healthcare (not just receiving it). The
energy we draw from our older population
may grow to become one of
our most valuable resources. Businesses
founded by people over the
age of 50 are already major sources
of employment across the nation.
Products designed with older people
in mind must go beyond vitamins,
walkers and pill-reminder systems.
An aging society has given rise to
a new multi-trillion-dollar market of
consumers who want not just to be
taken care of but also live out aspirations
once considered impossible in
old age.
In particular, technologies no longer
should be built on the antiquated
idea that older people must remain
separate from society and at
rest. Consider those simplified cell
phones that only call one’s kids
and 911: a technology of universal
connection reduced down to two
contacts. Once upon a time, such
devices made sense for many older
adults. But as tech-savvy boomers
age into their 70s and beyond, most
will demand tech with full functionality
that is also highly usable. No one
who uses an iPhone now is going to
switch back to a push-button device
willingly, no matter their age.
But as we become a nation of Floridas,
we must be careful to avoid
producing too many of those most
peculiarly Floridian phenomena:
communities like The Villages.
Nothing is wrong with The Villages.
Its residents are very happy and
that’s the most important consideration
about a place where people
live. It offers a lifestyle that is attractive
to many wonderful people, and
a deserved respite from youth-oriented
culture. But it also represents a
troubling possible future for our era
of longevity: one in which the young
and old segregate themselves from
each other.
We continue to write a story of old
age that retires people away from everyone
else, rather than finding ways
to engage them, to activate their
talents. In response, it’s only natural
that older people would choose to
cloister themselves away.
The challenge we all face is to actively
build an age-ready nation. The
longevity economy in the U.S. alone
adds up to over a hundred million
older people, many of whom have
the potential to live beyond the age
of 100. We need to be ready.
A successful nation of Florida’s will
require so much more than van rides
and pills and home health aides.
More than anything, we as individuals
will have to rethink old age, both
for the sake of those older than us
and, more selfishly, for our own future
selves. Done right will improve
quality of life across the board. After
all, if we’re lucky, the future of old
age is the future for everyone.
Edited By: Brittany Samuels
Sources: CNN, Time, AARP