When We Get There, the Future will be Ours
08/26/2020
It's easy for Boomers to be discouraged and pessimistic right now, but keep your eye on the future. It will be ours.
How can I be so sure? It's all about statistics:
- The U.S. Census Bureau reported in June that those in the 65-plus age group in the U.S. grew by a hefty 34.2 percent over the past decade, and by 3.2 percent from 2018 to 2019.
- The U.S. Census Bureau projected that by 2034, there will be 77 million people 65 years and older in the U.S. vs. 76.5 million people under the age of 18 -- marking the first time in history older people will outnumber children.
- The World Population Prospects 2019 report published by the United Nations indicates that 1 in 11 people in the world were over age 65 in 2019, but 1 in 6 people in the world will be over age 65 by 2050. According to the report, "Virtually every country in the world is experiencing growth in the size and proportion of older persons in their population." Further, the report states, "Throughout most of the world, survival beyond age 65 is improving."
- Wharton professor Mauro Guillen, author of the just published book, 2030: How Today's Biggest Trends Will Collide and Reshape the Future of Everything, told NextAvenue's Richard Eisenberg, "the number of people over sixty is growing everywhere in the world. By 2030, they will become the largest consumer market segment for the first time in history."
What this means is that we -- Boomers -- own the future. But the reality of an aging population has not yet been acknowledged, as it should be, by any part of our society, whether it's state and federal governments, employers, industries that serve the country, or marketers of goods and services.
We can help shape what that future will look like by exerting the power of our demographic slice of the United States. We can advocate for ourselves and for Boomers in general. We can vote for politicians we believe will not put our old age in jeopardy. We can ask and, if necessary, demand that ageism be abolished once and for all.
Mauro Guillen talks about a bright future for Boomers: In his NextAvenue interview, he suggests that employers will be much more interested in hiring seniors for part-time jobs and that the gig economy will benefit Boomers. He believes intergenerational collaboration will become more common. He thinks technology will become increasingly important in helping an aging population deal with the challenges of growing older. My conclusion is that government and industry will have to serve an older population because an older population will be the majority.
There is power in numbers -- and in the not too distant future, the numbers will be in our favor.
HappilyRewired.com is a Top 75 Baby Boomer Blog.
Image by Susanne Pälmer from Pixabay
Read about 156 best and worst brands of the 50s and 60s!
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.