Quality of life in the coming decades

Abstract

L ooking towards the future is always a tricky business...if you are too dependent on present data you do not look out far enough and if you extrapolate too far you are writing science fiction. I will concentrate on issues that are presently on the horizon and which I think are important to concentrate on for the coming decade. To me there are several issues about the quality of life that are already foreseeable from present trends. Such cultural trends already in place will create needs that will require good description and good research and evaluation. I will focus on six here. 1) The aging and long-lived baby boom: Their denial of aging, their quest for excellence in quality of life, and their lack of preparation for the next 40 years. 2) The entire society's sacrelization of emotion-and the instability it will provide over the foreseeable decades. 3) The continuing problems of family life---especially the socialization of children as women's participation in the labor force continues to intensify. 4) The hunger for community and both religious and non-religious expressions of spiritual fulfillment. 5) Generational struggle over funding of the young and old on public interest issues; a pitched battle already has begun to occur between the baby boom and older generations and the baby boomlet. 6) The continuing schizophrenic relationship our society has towards sexuality and our failure to create rational, widespread programs on health and sexual conduct with objective evaluations of their efficacy. My generation's forecast: semi-spoiled, in denial, and possibly economically endangered. Naturally, boomers think the latter is unfair and we want it fixed for us. The baby boom generation has stayed young longer, and is trying to stay young longer, and may have to stay young longer, than the immediate generation preceding it. While this generation has been the recipient of early easy employment, the era of lifetime jobs has been disappearing for a long time and is now officially dead. You do not hear jokes any more about someone getting a gold watch for fifty years of service. The baby boomers are experiencing high divorce rates, which is expensive. They have parental duties with children having trouble in the job world, which is also expensive: all of this in the context of a relatively low savings rate compared to generations even slightly older than themselves. They are fixated on diet, exercise, and attractiveness because they are still in competitive circumstances in their private and their work lives.