We hear a lot of bad news about old age, and the most annoying is that we are a drag on the younger generation. You know: they will have to support us and, God forbid, listen to our moldy stories about the good old days when Cokes were a nickel.
The US Census bureau says that by 2020 elders will outnumber the young, world-wide. Bad news? Not at all, according to this article. Longer lives also bring to the world better education, greater wealth, less disease or war, and happier lives. And green technology to improve the health of our planet.
Growing older? Rejoice.
1 comment:
I equate myself to the dinosaurs: they may have gone extinct, but ruled the world while they were here. Let's see - 2020 will put us at 80 years old, so we should not be that much of a drag.
The "doom and gloom" predictors of how we are/shall be a drag on the next generation conveniently overlook that we were raised differently, with the idea of being able to provide for ourselves in old age (when we get there). I am afraid they are reflecting their own values upon us.
In the meantime we have been doing that for others since (my case) 1956, when social security started getting a cut of all my paychecks. Also overlooks our taking care of older family members too, as has happened throught history.
-Allan Stephens
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