Happy 150th birthday: a new era looms for old age

Reuters ^ | Mar 15, 2006 | Ben Hirschler

[stuartcr]

You really believe that there are enough jobs, to support all those people from 20yo to 80yo?

[ThinkDifferent]

As the problems with these systems from an aging perspective are figured out, the limits on aging will be drastically pushed... I mean very, very drastically.

Exactly. It's not about adding to the end of your life, but the middle. Not hanging on for 20 more years in a nursing home, but maintaining the physical health of a 25-year old indefinitely.

Concerns about Social Security and retirement are silly. If this happens, permanent retirement goes away completely because people won't become physically unable to work. Instead you could work for 40 years, take a few years off for an extended vacation, repeat as long as you want. Sign me up.

[ThinkDifferent]

You really believe that there are enough jobs, to support all those people from 20yo to 80yo?

Sure. The quantity of jobs is not fixed. Half of Americans were farmers not that long ago.

[TASMANIANRED]

You'd either have to save like a som a buck in your early years or else work till you are 130.

No thankx

[AnotherUnixGeek]

You really believe that there are enough jobs, to support all those people from 20yo to 80yo?

If the economy were to grow, yes.

But growing economies aren't the issue, shrinking economies are.

Populations in Western Europe are heading for a decline. The US population would be heading the same way if not for immigration, both legal and illegal. The rate of population increase in both China and India is slowing, and will eventually reverse later in the century as both nations develop - people in developed nations don't want or need as many children. Economies will inevitably shrink as workers retire unreplaced and their jobs disappear. Japan seems headed down this road right now.

One solution for this, and a way to prevent a shrinking percentage of workers supporting a growing percentage of retirees, is to keep people healthy enough to work longer and to want to work longer.

[djf]

Problem is, from most of what I've read in the abstracts, etc. if you wait till you're 40 or 50, you've waited too long.

Over and over you read things like "the bodies production of enzyme X falls off dramatically after age 30 or so"... and the like.

I imagine most things are reversible, but of those that aren't, some would be killers.

[MontanaBeth]

My mom is 84 years old, just a few gray hairs, reads without glasses, very healthy, though getting bored with life. She still cleans her own house and cooks her own meals. She takes no prescription medication but is religious about her vitamin pills. My dad was the opposite of this and died at 68 years old after heart surgery.