Commentary: Dr. Robert N. Butler, the Longevity Revolution, and Work

Bob Moos, a staff writer for The Dallas Morning News covering aging issues, follows the conclusions of Dr. Richard N. Butler, on the publication of his latest book: The Longevity Revolution: The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life. Butler, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Why Survive?: Being Old in America, which "first raised the topic of growing old in a country preoccupied with youth," is again trying to engage the country in another discussion about old age by focusing on the challenges posed by the gain in life expectancy.

As Moos writes, "[w]e haven't figured out how to accommodate older people's desire to work or volunteer so that the additional years become productive for them and rewarding for society. Retirement can't mean idleness if it's to last a third of someone's adult life." Among other things, we need to get rid of stereotypes about aging: advocacy groups "trying to create more opportunities for older workers continue to run into employers who view them as rigid, unwilling to learn new skills or likely to quit their jobs after a short while."

Butler suggests that the political agenda of baby boomers should include creating opportunities for those who want, or need, to continue working past the traditional retirement age:

The marketplace itself will solve part of the problem, as a projected labor shortage in certain industries will make employers more willing to hold onto their older employees. But Dr. Butler suggests nudging other employers, by offering financial incentives or eliminating current barriers to hiring older adults.

He proposes, for example, allowing people to qualify for Medicare at 55, instead of 65, and making it the primary payer of their health care. Older workers would then become less expensive and more attractive to businesses.

Source: Dallas Morning News "Bob Moos: The Longevity Revolution" (March 23, 2008)

Read an excerpt: Richard N. Butler Excerpt from Chapter 13

Actuarial Forum on Living to 100 Addresses Challenges Faced by an Aging Workforce

The Society of Actuaries (SOA) held their triennial symposium on high-age mortality and related issues--"Living to 100: Survival to Advanced Ages International Symposium"--and discussed, among other things, the growing challenges individuals face from increased life expectancy and rising healthcare costs and the new opportunities and challenges faced by employers and governments they respond to an aging population.

"The implication of longevity is a huge blindspot for employers, especially since many individuals are looking to retire at age 65 like their parents did before them," said presenter Valerie A. Paganelli, FSA, EA, MAAA, senior consulting actuary, Paganelli Consulting. "There is a major opportunity for employers to embrace and accommodate the aging workforce who are apt to need to work longer in life."

Pagnelli also said that employers can take the lead in helping individuals manage their resources over a longer period "by acting as intermediaries in helping aging employees remain in the workplace to reduce the risk of outliving their assets, which in turn would help strengthen the overall marketplace."

Handouts from the Symposiuim are available on SOA's website.

Source: Society of Actuaries Press Release (January 24, 2008)

Anti-Aging Developments: The Social Burden of Longer Lives

In the first of a three-part series on the science of anti-aging, Ker Than reports for Fox News that "while scientists go back and forth on the feasibility of slowing, halting or even reversing the aging process, ethicists and policymakers have quietly been engaged in a separate debate about whether it is wise to actually do so."

When it comes to the workplace, living longer will mean more time spent working: "Careers will necessarily become longer, and the retirement age will have to be pushed back, not only so individuals can support themselves, but to avoid overtaxing a nation's social security system." In addition, the experts worry that competition for jobs would become fierce and workplace mobility (or lack thereof) could make it harder for younger workers to get ahead.

Source: FOXNews.com "Toward Immortality: The Social Burden of Longer Lives" (May 23, 2006)

Retirement at 85? Anti-Aging Treatments Might Lead to Demographic Problems

A panel of experts discussed the future of the human life span at a news briefing at the 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting and, among other things, examined the potential demographic and economic effects which such life-extension measures could have. Assuming anti-aging therapies could increase life expectancy in the near future, Stanford biologist Dr. Shripad Tuljapurkar created a model examining the demographic and economic effects. "Given a 20-year increase in life expectancy between 2010 and 2030 due to anti-aging therapy--which the panel scientists consider a “moderate” estimate--the model predicts that there will be twice as many American retirees relative to working people. Thus, the dependency ratio would double, as would the cost of Social Security and Medicare. In order to compensate, Tuljapurkar estimates, the retirement age would have to climb to 85."

Source: News Archive American Association for the Advancement of Science (February 18, 2006)