The Future of Work for Older Persons

Zusammenfassung

Any serious discussion of the future must, first of all, avoid making predictions. Instead, we should discuss a range of possible alternative scenarios. Fortune-tellers, palm readers, astrologers, or gazers into crystal balls, are not welcome. Second, we should be clear about which future we refer to. Is it the very near future — for example, ten years from now? The intermediate future, about 20–25 years; or, the long-run future, say, 50 years from now? Each of these futures can be different from the others. But equally important, the dynamics, the characteristics, the trends set in one preceding time period impinges on those that follow. Each future is not a freestanding time entity, independent of its predecessor, and without an effect on its successors.