Boomers: The Next 20 Years Map of Future Landscape Affecting Boomers

As boomers move into their 60s and 70s over the next 20 years, they
will not only carry their revolutionary history with them. They will
extend it into a new realm. Biology, the very basis of human life, will
be up for grabs as boomers make choices about physical aging that no
previous generation has had to make.

They will weigh these choices in a world fraught with dilemmas: a
rapidly deteriorating environment, shifts in global economic power, the
decline of legacy institutions that they have both opposed and worked
within, the meteoric advance of technologies that confer advantage on
the youngest members of society, and perhaps even the loss of faith in
science as the basis for a rational society. They may face growing
opposition to entitlements by younger workers who feel burdened by the
seemingly privileged lifestyles of boomers. They will stand divided by
the great gap in wealth within their own ranks.

This map is a first view of this new era of boomer experience. It
would be a mistake to call this a map of aging or even a map of boomers
as they age. After all, every aspect of aging is in flux. Rather, this
is a map of the changing human lifecycle as it will be lived first by
nearly 77 million people who just happened to be born in those
seemingly quiet years following World War II. It’s a map of the
boomers’ next 20 years, yes—but it’s also a preview of life to come for
us all.

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