Thoughtful article by Florian Kohlbacher about the economics of ageing

Florian Kohlbacher is the Head of the Business & Economics Section at the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ) in Tokyo and most recently a Research Fellow at the Sloan Center on Aging & Work at Boston College. I think it correct to say that he knows a thing or two about the economic of ageing.

He recently had an article in the Huffington Post. that I thought was very thought provoking.

I quote:

Business leaders in developed countries have their eyes on the “silver market”—members of the Baby Boom generation now entering retirement—because many have accumulated significant wealth and will soon have a lot of time on their hands. Most companies pitch their silver market strategies to the segment of the elderly population who are rich and young at heart, generally neglecting those who are poor and weak of limb. That’s a mistake, because in the silver market of the future, those who are old, poor, and sick will likely be the majority.

This is a complex argument to convey. On one hand, Florian and people like me, are telling companies that they are need to take the older market very seriously, on the other hand we need to explain that over time, and not much time, it is going to have a large number of very poor people.

This is a good explanation of this unfolding economic drama. Dick Stroud