Estate Living Magazine Retirement Living - Issue 40 April 2019 | Page 10

P R O P E R T Y
&
I N V E S T M E N T
HOW OLD CAN WE
GROW?
There’s all this talk of how our population is ageing, and how the baby boomers are
not ‘going gentle into that good night’ any time soon. But, really, how long can we
live? And how will living longer affect society?
With the first members of the baby boom generation having attained their biblical three-score-
and-ten with no signs of slowing down, some of the most contentious debates in demography
today are centred on questions concerning the human life span. In South Africa we are faced
with a supposedly ever-increasingly youthful population, but in Europe and North America
populations are ageing dramatically – and that has some very real economic implications.
In the USA, for example, the sheer number of baby boomers makes it difficult to accurately
predict survival rates – and even small differences between actual rates and the government’s
predictions will determine whether social security programmes can fulfil their mandate. And
we may think that’s not our problem, but when that army of insolvent American octogenarians
sneezes, we will catch cold. As James Carey says, ‘future changes in longevity will affect all
social institutions and fundamental beliefs throughout the world – it is not possible to change
one segment of any society without affecting the entire network of relations both within and
between societies.’
Age is more than just a number
The increase in life expectancy at birth in the United States – and most of the developed world
– from less than 48 years in 1900 to nearly 77 years in 2000 is considered by most demographers