We stand poised at the edge of history. We are about to confront a demographic shift of enormous magnitude: increasing longevity, declining fertility, and the aging of the baby boom are triggering an enormous "age wave." This wave has the potential to create vibrant new stages of life with positive roles for the multiplying ranks of elders--and an equally compelling potential for social, financial and political catastrophe.
For many, life's prolonged second half will be a time to chart a new course. We'll have the time and resources to reverse past failures or build on past victories, perhaps changing careers, taking a sabbatical, or returning to school. With longer life spans, there will also be sufficient time to take a more active and contributing role in the lives of our children, grandchildren and community life.
For others, however, this "longevity bonus" will be fraught with pain and suffering. As bodies suffer and minds fail, tens of millions of us could wind up spending our final decades struggling with depressing loneliness and unrelenting pain. Large numbers of tomorrow's elders could also wind up impoverished, left stranded by an absence of financial preparedness and dwindling old age entitlements.
And who will pay for all of this? Can our country afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80? Or 100? Will existing pensions and entitlement programs survive long enough for us to reap even part of what we are hoping for? Can our current health care system handle the onslaught of chronic degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's? Can we wipe out this dreaded disease - and others - before they become the sinkhole into which 21st America falls? Can we envision - and bring to life a new "purpose" to maturity? And who of our leaders has the wisdom, courage and vision to chart the smart course?
In this keynote address, which was part of the general session of the recent joint convention of the American Society on Aging and the National Council on Aging, I found myself raging against America's unpreparedness for the aging of our society, challenging our misaligned health care system, sounding a wake-up call to our financially irresponsible population, questioning the new purpose of aging and lambasting our leaders for their shortsightedness in public policies pertaining to the age wave.
After having spent, 35 years studying (and worrying about) these issues, I offer these 16 minutes to you as a wake-up call, and with the deepest hope that in the years ahead, we can - and will - do the right thing.
Part 1.
Part 2.
Ken Dychtwald Ph.D., is a gerontologist, psychologist, documentary film-maker, public speaker and author of sixteen books, including Age Wave, Healthy Aging, Age Power: How the 21st Century Will be Ruled by the New Old, The Power Years: A User's Guide to the Rest of Your Life, Gideon's Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings and his latest A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement and Success. He has served as a fellow of the World Economic Forum and is widely considered to be North America's most visionary and original thinker regarding the lifestyle, economic, health care, workforce and marketplace implications of the age wave.
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"There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval."
Two quotes from the famous Spanish-American, Jorge Santayana.
It's genius I tells 'ya. Genius!
Eiether you're trying to be funny - and you're note, or you're comments are simply offensive. Please find another blogsite to express yourself.
All the best,
Ken
What we need to do is learn from Native Peoples on how to live in accordance with the natural world.
Take only what you need. Work as a group to care for every member. Let the land rest and replenish itself rather than wiping out all resources and moving on to the next.
Incidentally, there is a new series of talks on youtube on the Native American Prophecy's part 1 can be found here as well as links to the remaining.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7cylfQtkDg&playnext_from=TL&videos=gz7aiyJsW18
(Part 1) Indigenous Native American Prophecy (Elders Speak part 1)
Will we? Only when it's too late, and then again probably not.
If we all took more responsibility for ourselves (gawd-forbid!!!), everything else could easily be managed.
The take-a-pill-and-ignore-our-personal-role-in-it philosophy is what has to change.
As far as pensions are concerned...many people enjoy working ...at their own schedule!!!...after the official "retirement age".
Re-thinking everything we do with regard to health and retirement is in order. As Alvin Toffler so briliantly said..."The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but rather, those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn"
Growing up can be difficult, can't it?
Great points.....and I agree with you that a stornger dose of well-informed self-responsbility would be a very potent part of the equation. At the same time for those who are truly in need and have tried hard but can't make ends meet - I would hope that a strong dose of kindness would be in order too.
All the best,
Ken
They became silent sometime ago. Like a withered old oak tree in an expansive forest, the tree has fallen and no sound but the screams of the butterflies are heard.
THEY WERE RICH... OH SO RICH AND WEALTHY!
Morrison would understand.
With age, comes wisdom. You must really hate your grandparents. You haven't a clue about Baby Boomers and what they think, or how they live, or what they've learned. Your comments are the crazy talk of an angry person. What a rant!
In defense of boomers.
This large generation may turn out to be the most generous generation in history (I know that this assertion flies against the bad PR they always get). But consider that boomers have both the highest volunteer rate in the country as well as the highest contribution to charities rate among all generations. On top of that, we have the highest percentage of women in the workforce (boomer women have broken all molds and should continually be applauded for all that they do and contribute to every aspect of our society). And tens of millions of boomers are now actively providing eldercare.
So while boomers were once the "me" generation - they are truly not anymore. They've grown up - and our views about them should change in response. (BTW, I've covered this in my recent PBS special "The Boomer Century" which is available for free at my website www.AgeWave.com
All the best,
Ken
IMHO, in generations past, Doctors were healers first, small businessmen by necessity. From what I have observed, sometime during just my lifetime, that role has been reversed. Now many if not most in the medical field (not just doctors) are in it for the money. There's a tremendous financial incentive (profits) to prolong life through extraordinary measures and advanced technology, there is little monetary incentive to address the quality of life.
We're advised to eat right, and exercise, yet junk food is the most convenient and cheapest food available. Our society is centered around the automobile and the need for speed. We're always in a hurry. Walking or riding a bike to work or to shop can be MORE hazardous to your health then not exercising, depending on traffic. The Mom and Pop corner store has been eliminated by Walmart (and zoning), now you drive miles to the mall.
Nursing homes are paid to keep the elderly alive, not to keep them healthy or happy. Most people are so involved in trying to make a living for themselves, and their immediate family, that they can't or won't help take care of their elderly parents. (Again, it comes down to money)
We live in a capitalistic society that values things higher then it does people. Our loss.
Like you, I have thought about the root of these challenges quite a lot - and for a long time, and I have not concluded that the source of all the headache is capitalism. Rather, I believe that we here in the US are inclined to nerly always take the "short-term view." We think about how our behaviours will impact our immediate future....whether that's what we eat, who we befriend, how much we save, how we plan for our careers, who we vote for etc.
This longevity revolution truly requires that we take a much longer view about everything.
For example, the AIDS epidemic was a horrible and sad phenomenon and more than 1,000,000 American men and women found themselves with HIV before any reasonable (not terrific, but reasonable) treatment process could be developed.
Well, we're heading towards 15,000,000 people with dementia - and yet the subject of a full-on war against Alzheimer's - to wipe it out - has barely been touched. If we speeded up the next fifty-one hundred years in our minds, we'd more readily see the problems that we'll likely confront - which would give us the running room to prevent and avert many of them.
Longer term thinking is what's required, not a ban on capitalism.
All the best,
Ken
This is NOT what I said. I said I was hoping that nursing homes COULD close becuase we had wiped out Alzheimer's. And I also storngly urged us to put MORE value on the lives, wisdom and contributions of elder men and women.
All the best,
Ken
Also, 'value' has to be defined. These days everything is about 'make it cheap and deal with other aspects later', of which BP is the most glaring example of how wrong the system is. And greed is at the very epicenter of their paradigm, which is a highly unstable paradigm that only adds misery, discontent, anxiety, and other problems.
All the best,
Ken
Me—I'm an aging but active, pill-hating, farmers market loving, flaming Democrat who still has hope for my country, our future and the world. W
That said, I also acknowledge that we've polluted the planet so much, it's made us psychicly, spiritually and physically ill. We've relied on others for our happiness and health. And Corporate America has led us down that path since they began owning all the broadcast media.
However, I disagree with your concern over who will pay for this, because the government could choose to pay for generous pensions and health plans for all seniors in perpetuity if it wanted to. The USA is running a fiat currency; it can never run out of money because it issues money. The government is *not* a household, it is not revenue constrained, and can buy anything that is for sale. The real constraint on spending is inflation.
We act like we are still on the gold standard by "borrowing" when we spend more than we tax, aka issuing government bonds. These are just risk-free, interest bearing assets sold by the government, and as such *support* private savings. In other words, the government's deficit is actually the private sector's surplus! When governments tax more than they spend they squeeze the private sector and eat into our aggregate savings. This is an indisputable accounting identity, not just conjecture.
Then the only question is, will there be enough real resources, doctors, hospital beds etc to support an aging population? If we slash education and healthcare budgets in our obsession with government debt, then we make it harder to support the aged!
Have a read:
http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=1075
Thanks for watching my YouTube clips - and for your comments.
Unfortunately, I do not believe that printing more and more money would ultimately solve this challenge.
And I agree that across the board, excellent resources will be needed to transform this coming era of mass longevity into something we're looking forward to and not dreading.
All the best,
Ken
Can you seriously say that if social security never went broke and medicare never went bust, that this would not be an improvement for everyone, especially seniors? They don't have to unless we choose to stop funding them - and this is exactly what Obama's deficit commission is now trying to do. It's people's misunderstanding of modern monetary systems and fiat currencies that cause these kind of problems.
The idea that money supply = price levels, and that deficits without bond sales are inflationary, is so deeply rooted, but so very wrong. All those equations that come to that conclusion assume ridiculous things like total employment and constant money velocity. The truth is, as long as there is a huge amount of unemployment, any spending of this nature will expand capacity (employment!), not prices.
Basically, any government "saving for the future" in it's own currency by running surpluses is just a hugely deflationary policy (destroying money) - economic vandalism of the highest order. If in 20 years time you want more doctors, people to save more, and a generally healthier economy, you should be encouraging higher government spending, especially in education.
Gracias for an inspired presentation. It's not just why, it's why not!
And goof luck with your adjunctve education. This phenomenon is going to need strong-willing, highly talented people - if we're to avert the potential disasters.
All the best,
Ken