The Future of Aging and Longevity - Flipbook - Page 52
Age Diversity:
The Demographic Des琀椀ny
That Will De昀椀ne Our Future
Marc Freedman
Eunice Lin Nichols
Founder and Co-CEO,
CoGenerate
Co-CEO,
CoGenerate
wo characteriza琀椀ons of demographics
today are both true and misleading.
The 昀椀rst—that lives are ge琀�ng
longer for most people in the developed world—is
true, and yet, the greatest transforma琀椀on isn’t in
the length of life but in its shape. The rewri琀椀ng of
the map of life that began with the inven琀椀on of
adolescence a century ago con琀椀nues today with
the crea琀椀on of a new life stage between midlife
and old age.
The second characteriza琀椀on—that America is
an aging society, and we’ll soon have more older
people than young ones—is also true, and yet,
the greatest transforma琀椀on isn’t in the increasing
numbers of older people but in the unprecedented
level of age diversity already washing over us.
As Sasha Johfre of the University of
Washington shows, we’re now living in the “most
T
48
age-diverse society in human history,” with the
same number of people at every age from birth
to 74.41
At the same 琀椀me, sadly, we’ve become
more age segregated, a phenomenon economics
professor Andrew Sco琀琀 calls “age apartheid.”
Young people are in schools with other young
people. Older people have been shunted to a set
of social ins琀椀tu琀椀ons designed for the aging set:
senior centers, re琀椀rement communi琀椀es, nursing
homes, and lifelong learning programs. And
middle-aged people have been concentrated in
the workplace.
The great mismatch between age diversity
and age segrega琀椀on leaves us poorly prepared
for the demographic des琀椀ny that will de昀椀ne our
future. It leads to genera琀椀onal con昀氀ict, to age
groups becoming interest groups, to zero-sum
MIL K EN I N S T I T U T E | T H E FU T U RE O F AGI N G A N D LO N GEV I TY
