Dr Eliza Filby's Newsletter

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Are you a member of Gen X (1966-1980), if so, this one is for you. This fortnight's essay delves into the future of ageing and what it means for our workplaces, families and politics.?

Subscriptions to this newsletter continue to increase at a rapid rate which is lovely. If you know of anyone who might be interested in subscribing, they can do so?here. Scroll to the bottom for some recent readings on why Jeff Bezos is so buff, why office parties are dead and which generation is suffering the most during the cost of living crisis.?

How Gen X will grow old disgracefully

Retirement, ageing, even end of life are changing rapidly. What beckons for Gen X?

Tattoos don’t age well on maturing bodies. What starts as a bold statement on?taut?skin gradually fades and blurs into our saggy frame. After a decade or two of mid-life, those scripted Chinese wisdoms begin to look like a child has scribbled on your arm, those yin-yang symbols resemble a smudged nightclub stamp on your inner wrist. Ubiquitous now, it was Gen X (1966-1980) that popularised and personalised tattoos in the nineties.?Today, we manipulate our bodies with an app, back then, the youth customised it with a needle. But in fading tattoos, do we have a clumsy metaphor for how Gen X will themselves age??

Gen X have a unique place in history sandwiched between Baby Boomers and Millennials. They do not suffer from middle child syndrome, rather Gen X have always revelled in their mystery and exclusivity like groupies of a band few have discovered. They’ve also revelled in being in the shadow of Boomers (who?tend to get the blame for younger generation's ills) although their intergenerational dynamic?rests?on the fact that Gen X were a much smaller cohort. Before writer?Douglas Coupland?gave them a label they didn’t want, Gen X were known in purely demographic terms as the ‘baby bust’ (in contrast to the boom) reflective of the declining birth rate from the mid-sixties. But in many ways Gen X has always been associated with decline and in turn, adaptation.?Perhaps?this is the source of their?relative?cynicism and DIY outlook.

Everything we associate with Western Boomers, is less true for Western Gen X’ers in respect of their wealth, opportunity and privilege. Likewise everything we associate with Millennials was in fact pioneered by Gen X,?from work/life balance chat to food culture, from status travel to tech. They were the guinea pigs for personalised technology; the Sony Walkman kids who morphed into the Blackberry adults. They were the first generation to take a slower path into adulthood with their McJobs and slacker mentality. They were the generation which saw a decline in marriage and women outnumber men at university,?setting in train a great disruption to?the male-breadwinner model. By the late 2020s, Gen X are set to finally overrun Boomers and their identity as a generation will morph once more, evolving (maybe reluctantly) into society’s elders, and in doing so, redefine what it means to be old. But how will the kids of the 1970s approach their?actual?seventies??

Over the last twenty years, in a reversal of history, we have come to associate retirement with wealth. This has been the Boomer’s experience, but it won’t be Gen X’s who do not have anything like their predecessors’ money. Gen X saw their savings and investments curtailed the most of any generation during the Financial Crisis and even though they recovered, it is still striking that in the US X’ers hold 28.6% of the wealth compared with 51.6% that belongs to Boomers. Gen X have more debt than any other generation (partly because they are in their peak debt years) but many in the US are in the tricky situation of still paying off their student loans whilst also financing their children’s education.??

Gen X’s financial precarity will have knock-on effects for the family. It is unlikely that they will be able to support their Gen Z kids in the same way that affluent Boomers have carried their Millennial children. Today, the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ is?reportedly the sixth largest mortgage lender in the UK, but probably won’t be in twenty years’ time. This, in consequence, may mean that Gen Z will be less preoccupied with homeownership, more self-reliant and even more politically frustrated than Millennials. Gen X though, may find that many of their retirement years and money are taken up with caring for their elderly parents. This will be particularly true for Gen X women (the main carers, even of their in-laws) but it will conflict with the fact that this female demographic are more financially independent than their predecessors, worked more and will want to work longer.?

Gen X was?also the first cohort to experience significant growth in remarriages and ‘blended families’, which will no doubt complicate?inheritance and care responsibilities in later years. Similarly, they have seen the rise of those with no dependents at all which, although liberating in mid-life, poses particular difficulties in old age. Will Gen X be the one to pioneer ‘chosen family’ models of care as a result??

More than any other generation before them, Gen X women tended to marry men closer in age and of a similar economic and educational status. Add to this, the fact that the life expectancy gap between men and women is narrowing, and there’s the potential that the historic life-stage unique to women - widowhood- may be cut short or even go into decline. Currently women outnumber men 3:1 in nursing homes but for how much longer? The gender gap will close just as the social inequality gap widens amongst the elderly. Gen X will also be the most diverse elderly generation in history. Goodbye to the unwritten assumption that an old person equals white and affluent. Just as we are rightly seeing a revolution in representation happening in younger generations, so a similar shift will be triggered in how we see and reflect old people in society, not just in adverts but across politics, policies and planning.

But it is in work where Gen X will really reject the status quo. The UK state pension age is 66, but Gen X already knows this is irrelevant. And while many will continue to work out of desire, many more will do so out of need. Gen X entered the job market as final salary pensions were being withdrawn but before auto-enrolment got going. 41% of Gen X Americans and 33% of Brits fear they do not have enough in their savings to see them through old age while 60% of Americans and 66% of British Gen X’ers see themselves seeking additional income in retirement, chiefly through part time work. Gen Z parents won't be able to rely on grandma for childcare like their Millennial predecessors; she will probably still be working.?

The problem though is that few companies are built for retaining an older workforce. Young people are cheap; experience is expensive. Redundancy rates for 60-64 are twice as high as those aged between 16-49. Add in the complication of age discrimination, lack of training for older employees and automation and it is hard to see how Gen X’s desire to work for longer will be easily accommodated. Companies will need to adapt; probably by offering lower status, lower paid, part time work for older employees. Will retirees consider downsizing their career like they currently downsize their homes?

Inevitably, there will be a natural flow into the gig economy. Now a well-established route pioneered by the Boomers, the rise of the ‘grey gig economy’ is reflected in the fact that 50% of the UK’s self-employed are over 50-years-old. This will only increase. But, as we know, in the gig economy there are winners and losers; what is freedom for some is,?for others,?a debilitating lack of security.??We currently assume the delivery economy is a young man’s game, but we may soon find our pizzas and parcels being dropped off by an elderly person seeking to bolster their state pension.?

The major obstacle to these plans though is their health. Gen X are in worse physical shape than Baby Boomers were at their age and while life expectancy has been on an upward trajectory, this has translated into more years of?ill-health rather than in good health. Gen X are the first generation to have decades-long exposure to the ills of modern life: a sedentary lifestyle, processed food, earphones, blue light and a fitness culture which at the very least means bad backs and arthritic knees and at worst means diabetes and obesity. Strikingly, 78% of Gen X men are overweight in the UK. Given this, it seems logical that Gen X will be the?ones?most willing to invest in preventative and monitory digital healthcare. The latch-key kids of the '70s started life with keys around their necks and will end their life with alert pendants.

Gen X are currently navigating the social care crisis for their parents and this is inevitably impacting their own attitudes towards their end of life care. Put simply, Gen X will have higher expectations; from LGBTQ-only residencies to complexes for the affluent that?feel?like a Soho House hotel. The playlist will need to change, too,?of course; think mobility classes to ‘Firestarter’ rather than the ‘oaky cokey’ and sing-a-longs to Lauren Hill rather than Vera Lynn. This tech generation will also be more open to innovative forms of automated care; in-house robots may make sense to a generation that grew up with tamagotchis. Likewise, we may see more of the elderly remain in cities. There’s already a move by major care providers to build residencies in metropolitan areas giving older people greater independence and more connectivity.??As flexible working allows younger generations to flee to suburbia and the countryside, older people are moving back into the city. We tend to assume great metropolitan hubs are places of street fashion, cutting edge tech and youthful vibrancy, yet the metropolitan future could be very different, or certainly more multi-generational.

But what does all this mean for politics? For a long time politicians have played to the?Boomers'?tune,?protecting asset prices and the green-belt?(that was where the votes were after all). Gen X will not carry the same political weight or power. But in an ageing society where by 2030 half of all?adults will be over 50, politics will remain weighted towards the elderly yet will be reflective of?their evolving?needs. That will mean?promises?to protect the rights of the old at work (from redundancy and retraining) alongside?pledges on social care and equalising the inheritance economy.

As a society we tend to focus on evolving youth culture and to equate that with the future. We are less predisposed to reflect on how those at the opposite end of the lifecycle are evolving, in arguably more?profound and innovative ways. It may be then that?the future of driverless cars will be most readily adopted by Gen X’ers who currently represent the biggest percentage of car-buyers. Perhaps the chief traders in NFTs will be Gen X who, as the original musos, will invest their savings in tokens of their favourite band’s back catalogue. And perhaps Gen X will be the powerhouse behind the metaverse by buying up?memorial sites to preserve their digital afterlife. Who could have predicted Baby Boomers dominating Facebook and achieving super-host status with their second homes on Air B’n’B?

One thing is for certain, Gen X will represent the last?of the decadents. The generation who still found joy in alcohol, romanticism in taking drugs and being out of control before the great social media purge. And this will be their identity as society’s elders. Gen X will reminisce?about the olden golden days of the ‘90s like the Boomers talk about the ‘60s as?a dose of hedonism in contrast to today’s?puritanism.??Fading tattoos, then, are a terrible metaphor for how Gen X will transition into the last phase of their lives.?Instead of fading out gradually, they will live longer, work longer and expect more.?

Stuff I've read....

1.?The end of enforced corporate?socials and?mandatory fun in the office. Alcohol was always the social lubricant (for good and ill)?we needed for bonding with colleagues,?but with younger folk not drinking as much, what future for work office fun????

2. Instagram, TikTok and Twitter are all toxic and addictive. All hail?a new social media app 'BeReal'?which is?searching for spontaneous unfiltered social interactions.?Full marks?for?trying to address the problem although I'm unconvinced it's the solution.?

3.?Ever wondered why?Jeff Bezos is so buff??Forget the HRT shortage, testosterone therapy for ageing men should be a priority. Not.???

4. Struggling to empathise with your teens??Oculus and the brilliant Chloe Combi?have developed a VR experience where you can immerse yourself and truly understand what it's like to be a teenager in the 21st century.??

5.?Which generation is suffering?the most in this?costing of living crisis??Older groups are more likely to say they’re spending less – 37% of baby boomers?compared to around 30% of Gen Z and Millennials.

Feast for the Senses....

1. READING: CVs.?Jimmy McLoughlin?and I are looking to jointly hire a?social media manager.?Do circulate to your network, but get in quick as applications are only open until 30th May.?

2.?LISTENING:?Millennial feminist Florence Given at a live recording of her?Exactly podcast?with campaigner and model Munroe Bergdorf.?Live podcast recordings are the new theatre.?

3.?WATCHING:?..... and editing myself for my new?TikTok?channel.?Painful but fun. Do give me a follow!?

4.?VISITING:?Fortnum and Masons' impressive Board Room for a dinner jointly hosted by Julia Hobsbawn and the Pew Research Centre to discuss the future of democracy.?Pew's global polling?on the current state of democracy makes for depressing reading.??

And finally..... I've been awarded the?Europa Forum's 2022 Millennial Leaders Award?which I share with 24 other leaders in different fields from across Europe, from filmmakers to politicians to social entrepreneurs. Thank you to the Europa Forum. What an honour and how lovely for my work to be recognised.?

Thanks for reading,?Eliza?