Future Tense

Via Instapundit, an interesting new blog from Corante, Future Tense.  All about the modern work place and how it is evolving and adapting to new trends, technologies and economic factors.

It will be interesting to see how FutureTense deals with an aging work force.

Most stories about our aging population are depressing even as they underscore the need to prepare for an onslaught of boomers or the wealth that can be made in catering to them.

So it was refreshing indeed to see BusinessWeek take an optimistic view in Old. Smart. Productive.  Could it be the graying of the workforce is better news than you think?

A recent analysis by BusinessWeek found that the increased productivity of older Americans and higher labor-force participation could add 9% to gross domestic product by 2045 or more than $3 trillion a year.

Of course, that means changing many of our assumptions about older workers.

If society can tap their talents, employers will benefit, living standards will be higher, and the financing problems of Social Security and Medicare will be easier to solve. The logic is so powerful that it is likely to sweep aside many of the legal barriers and corporate practices that today keep older workers from achieving their full productive potential.

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There's no dispute that America is graying. But the solution to the demographic shift is staring us in the face. As Urban Institute senior fellow C. Eugene Steuerle told the House Ways & Means Committee in May: "People in their late 50s, 60s, and 70s have now become the largest underutilized pool of human resources in the economy." By working longer -- and more productively -- boomers will help the U.S. economy thrive even as their personal odometers keep clicking forward.

Are older Americans our only increasing natural resource?  Mark Freedman thinks so too.  He's also written a book about it called ."Prime Time: How Baby-Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America" (Marc Freedman) 

He argues that boomers  have the life experience, time and a psychological need to leave a legacy, to pass on to future generations what they have learned in life.    With stories, anecdotes and examples, Freedman makes a compelling case that boomers who plan to work at least part-time in their retirement, will transform what retirement is all about.