Can’t Wait
As always this time of year, we write a New Year’s Blog. But 2020 has been different. And so will be our thoughts for the new year.
During corona we saw exposed the greatest vulnerabilities of growing old — highest risks to the virus, super bugs, the adverse impact of loneliness and the unintended consequences of deferred or missed care to the NCDs of aging. Such vulnerabilities were especially ironic as 2020 was also the year the UN and WHO endorsed and launched The Decade of Healthy Ageing, now officially to start January 1, 2021. So as we prepare to celebrate the coming of ’21, the Global Coalition on Aging offers three ways to think about getting old that, out of the ashes of Covid-19, we see bright new opportunity; huge optimism actually. Here are three predictions:
First, the $17+ trillion Silver Economy — spending by and for the over-60 demographic globally — becomes the basis for new business strategies across sectors and a transformational platform for economic growth in the 2–5 year horizon to mid-decade. If Covid-19 served as an accelerant for trends already underway, why would this not be at least the case for those over 60 in OECD countries representing roughly 70% of all disposable income. Living through a pandemic showed us that a 70 or 80 year old is also a consumer of entertainment streaming, telehealth and telemedicine, and paper towels through digital apps. We learned this past year that you don’t need to have a diabetes medicine or managing a 401 K retirement account to think of the over 60 demographic as a market. And, applying this insight to our post-Corona world, if Delta, Marriott or the tourism office of Maine or Ireland is looking to replace that 20% of business travel which will continue to work virtually, why would you not think about “an aging strategy.” I promise you, such a strategy can earn new revenue even as you continue marketing to Millennials. From Fintech to Digital Health, the over-60 crowd are in.
Second, public health will, for the foreseeable future, be central to any business– big and small — as an employer, for customers and at the top of society-wide stakeholder demands. But, what is to be done to integrate and elevate the idea of public health into their cultures? All businesses can learn from those who have already been focused on the topic of healthy and active aging because of their traditional connections to the older demographic — home care, pharma, nutritional health, medical technology, or financial retirement. Look at how they innovate, develop, and market their products and services where the theme of health has already been priority #1. And, all leaders thinking about how to integrate public health to their agendas, much as they have done with subjects like environmental sustainability, diversity and inclusion, or inequality, could look at those nations where there are already far more old than young and exploding older populations — Japan, Singapore, most of Europe, South Korea, or China, for example — who have had public health related to their handling of population aging already their highest priority.
Third, look for the elevation of how to unshackle the culture of ageism to join our collective anxieties now reserved for other “isms.” The Decade of Healthy Ageing already has as one of its four platforms this goal — beating, undoing, reducing the culture of ageism — and both at the UN and WHO all 194 governments have signed on. It’s now formally part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Post corona — or out of the tragedies of Covid-19 — this will be accelerated. The confluence of self -interest and core social values are certain to provide the opening to reframing how society approaches growing old. Especially as we understand the Covid-19-induced work-from-anywhere digitally enhanced virtual environment, why would we keep the obsolete 19th century retirement age of 65? Or, in the central area of health systems, we now understand it is well past time to unravel the relationship between assumptions about age and such diseases as heart failure, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and fragility fractures, or vision loss. That is, accepting conditions because “oh well, she’s 82 and that’s what happens when you get old.” No, its a disease that is treatable, manageable, and sometimes even curable. No, 80 is not 30. But 19th and 20th century norms and values about aging will in our post-corona world begin, finally, to unravel as we see them not as fact-based but false presumptions embedded in a culture of ageism.
Like you, I’m really looking forward to 2021 — a year of hope, renewal, reimagination, and brightness for all ages. Happy New Year.
