The problem with articles about the aging population is they are generally written by the young, or perhaps middle aged. The old have been young/middle aged, s

The problem with articles about the aging population is they are generally written by the young, or perhaps middle aged. The old have been young/middle aged, so they can speak of that time with some confidence and wisdom. The young have little to no idea of the challenges of aging. The middle aged have slightly better insight, but aging scares them to death…an inappropriate response as well. Also, I read a comment by a gerontologist that “if you’ve seen one eighty year old…well, you’ve seen one eighty year old”. Everyone ages in their own unique way, and it is unlikely broad-brush superficial analyses of aging by “young punks”, say <50, are going to be very useful. As a previous poster commented, the greatest difference in aging populations are between those who did significant, sustained physical labor in their working lives, and those who didn’t. Articles about the aging population are written by the latter. Minds can stay sharp, but the body just wears out. There’s little “retooling for the workforce” when it’s hard to even get out of bed because of physical pain. That is a cruel fantasy spoken of by the young. One grace is the aged, excepting for medical costs, are a cheap generation…they generally know how to be happy with those few resources (physical, emotional, spiritual) they’ve gathered over the years. It’s not as much of an economic issue as people make out, other than the deflationary effect of less demand from a generally settled and content age cohort. We generally sits and think, and sometimes we just sits.