In a Good magazine piece, Jordan E. Rosenfeld argues that some Americans already born may live to 150 years old. He also tries to conjure economic solutions should that wonderful, challenging thing come to pass. 

There really are no answers, however, to supporting a population that gray, at least not according to current standards. Of course, it’s always questionable to apply modern arrangements to a future scenario, as if everything will remain the same except for one significant thing. That’s a sure way to make bad prognostications.

Perhaps if aging increases radically, we’ll also see by then mass automation and 3D printing becoming cheap and ubiquitous, leading to unprecedented abundance. Or maybe not. But Labor would definitely have to change significantly if the average person gets 15 decades, and it will be dramatically altered in the coming years even if we don’t.

From Rosenfield:

The first humans expected to live to age 150 are already alive, according to experts on aging and longevity. …

Astonishing or not, longer life will force people to rethink how (and how long) they work, and focus more on increasing the quality of these longer lives rather than rushing to retirement in their relatively spry 60s.

“We are at this huge historical event where people are living longer than they have ever lived, and our lifespans have practically doubled,” says Tamara Sims, a research psychologist at Stanford’s Lifespan Development Lab. “My mentor Laura Carstensen talks about redesigning the model and expanding our definition of middle age. It requires a cultural change, no easy task.”

One such way to redesign the model, Sims suggests, is rather than working furiously until the “magic age” of 62.5 (the earliest you can access social security benefits without penalties), people could “borrow time from their golden years.” This means people would work less in the early years—maybe part time—to raise families, pursue creative goals, and stay healthy, with the awareness that they’ll work longer than their parents and grandparents.•