Society at large

Eminent economist Kenneth Boulding published an interesting social thought experiment in the 1960s.¹⁰ He wondered how our world would change, economically and otherwise, if people lived until age 200. He started by noting how dependent our social institutions and structures are on the traditional life span and life phases, from family to school to work.

In purely economic terms, longevity will decrease people’s chances for promotion (due to crowding at the top of the pyramid), profoundly affect savings and investment plans, and potentially disrupting the production of economic wealth. Normally, the young and the old consume more than they produce, whereas the middle of the age pyramid supports the rest. If these proportions fall out of balance, economic chaos might ensue, although much depends on how longevity comes about. Suppose death took a holiday for more than 100 years, such that all death would be postponed by a century: What would be the effect? Apart from putting morticians out of business and pushing our entitlement programs into insolvency, other major economic and social dislo....