“I’m gonna live forever,” Irene Cara sang in the movie Fame. “I’m gonna learn how to fly.” Both are a physical impossibility, but that’s pop music for you. If Cara had sung the slightly less catchy, “I’m going to live till I’m 80, or maybe 100,” she would have been onto something—if a little less ambitious.
Fame and its avalanche of leotards and primary colors was released in 1980, when the average life expectancy was 73 years in Europe and 74 years in the U.S. By 2030 those figures will have risen to 86 and 81 (Europe is now considerably healthier than the U.S.). Across the West, more of us are getting older. More than a simple social reality, this is fast becoming a key issue for business leaders as well.
