The retirement of retirement

Both sectors, in employment terms, are declining. Most workers today are in the service sector, such as editing magazines. They have little physical work to do.

Third, western countries cannot afford to have people in retirement for many decades. The original German scheme envisaged (at most) just a few years relying on income from the government.

Many pension schemes are "pay as you go" whereby the currently retired population are financed via current taxpayers. But this is a giant Ponzi scheme because there are increasing numbers of longer-living retirees and fewer taxpayers as the years roll by.

The Australian superannuation guarantee levy is helping to address that problem. But most current superannuation balances will not be large enough to support someone for (say) 25 years in retirement.

Societies are headed towards a "can we afford the elderly?" debate. Baby Boomers (born between 1946 and 1965) have won the lottery of life. They grew up during a booming economy, received a free university education, cheap housing, and there were many well-paid middle-class jobs.

Many of those factors are no longer present for today's younger workers. For example, Baby Boomers bought cheap housing, held on to it as its increased in value, and have become on paper "millionaires" simply by holding onto their property. It has been an easy way to become wealthy. This is the power of compound interest – people make money while they are asleep.

Finally, retirement may well be a health hazard. Work is often good for a person. Not only does it provide a wage, but it also provides social connection, a challenge to keep the brain ticking over, a sense of purpose, a form of keeping active; in short, a reason to get out of bed in the morning.

From a business point of view, older workers are important to understand older customers. We hear a lot about the need to connect with young people, but older people should not be neglected, especially since they may be wealthy.

To conclude, we need to think through the consequences of an aging, healthier society. Here are two examples,

First, the Australian government has decided to treat 75 as the maximum year for contributing to superannuation. A worker at 75 can no longer be involved in contributing to the superannuation guarantee levy. That age limit should be abolished. Let the worker decide when they want to stop contributing to the scheme.

Second, we need to make Australia's built environment more suitable for an aging population. I was the national facilitator of the Australian government's 2006 project "A Community for All Ages – Building the Future". The project envisaged different parts of the Australian society (government, business and non-governmental organizations) working together to make buildings of all types more age-friendly. Unfortunately, with a later change in government, many of the recommendations languished.

The challenge remains to make sure that the increasing number of older Australians live well. Australians should die as "young" as possible as old as possible.