What Does An Aging Society Look Like?

The western world is getting older. I don’t think we have come to grips with what that exactly means. Massive changes are coming.

This situation isn’t Lindy at all. We’re about to see a new society develop soon catering to the needs and wants of people over 40, 50, 60 years old. This is a development that isn’t discussed very much. The median age of the USA in 1940 was 29. In 1870 it was 20. Now it is 38 overall, but 45 and rising for the majority population.

The same thing is happening everywhere in the west. Look at the median age in these countries: Italy - 48.4, Spain - 46.8, Germany - 46.8, Canada - 42.6, France - 42.6, UK - 40.8, USA - 38.9, Australia - 38.1.

We forget but for most of history, societies were young and teeming with life. It was kind of chaotic. Think of high birth rates churning out kids and mortality was high, life expectancy low, the median age clung to the fresh, young side of the spectrum. Lots of people being born, lots of people dying, and the streets were filled with 20 somethings.

I know everyone loves Mediterranean countries (myself included). If you've ever visited the less touristy, more local parts of Italy, it's striking how few young people there are. As you walk around town, it seems like the most popular pastime is playing cards with octogenarians while sipping coffee. Schools struggle to stay open due to low enrollment. At the local bar, you won’t find anyone under 40. If you ask the locals where the younger people are, they’ll tell you they’ve moved to Rome, Milan, Turin, or perhaps even London. That’s not to say life is bad—quality of life is actually very high—but these towns feel like they’re frozen in time.

The Elderly Are Not the Young

The elderly are not the young. The person at 21 isn’t the same person at 40, or 50. People change when they get older. I have felt the change. Everyone who has grown older has felt this change. Even Aristotle discusses some of the behavioral changes that occur with age.

Or the as the French Essayist La Bruyere notes:

The world is getting older for two reasons. People are living longer and having less kids. No one really knows how to stop this trend. It looks inevitable.

The World Was Always Young

When you read history or literature, when you try to think of how society looked back then, remember it was a young man’s world.

This is reflected in literature since the beginning, think of how old the people in the Iliad or Odyssey are. Or what societies looked like before ours.

In This Newsletter

9 Characteristics of Our New Aging Society:

• Less Violent Crime

• Aging Societies Will Not Enforce Borders

• The City Becomes a Refuge for the Youth

• Youth Culture Stops Influencing Society

• Obsessive Focus on Longevity Becomes Mainstream

• Mass Nostalgia

• Government Subsidies Will Go to the Old and Not to Families

• Normalization of Age-Gap Relationships

• Pharmaceutical Enhancement, Hormones and Plastic Surgery Becomes Normal

1) Obsessive Focus of Longevity Becomes Mainstream

Have you wondered why there are so many celebrity influencers now who discuss health and longevity? People like Huberman, Bryan Johnson, or Peter Attiah. 

It’s because when people get older they are scared of dying. Young people are just worried about living, not death. Old people are also scared of becoming frail and weak. Eventually, this becomes mainstream culture.

As society ages, people become obsessed with longevity, driven by a growing fear of mortality and the relentless passage of time. They fixate on ways to hold onto their youth, desperate to push back against the inevitable decline. This anxiety about aging spreads, fueling a demand for anything that promises to keep the body and mind sharp. As the population skews older, this obsession with staying young becomes the norm, a collective pursuit to delay the effects of time.

Health and longevity influencers step in to capitalize on this cultural shift. They sell the dream of eternal youth, offering diets, workouts, and supplements that claim to extend life. Their rise isn’t just a trend; it directly responds to a society increasingly consumed by the fantasy of living forever. In a world where aging feels like losing control, these influencers provide a sense of hope, feeding the widespread desire to stay ahead of the clock.

2) Less Violent Crime

Who commits violent crime? It’s mostly young people

Youth is full of dynamism and energy. That manifests in crime sometimes.

As the population ages, the streets become quieter. The statistics reflect a safer society, where the presence of younger, more volatile individuals is gradually fading. One of the reason Europe is so safe today in part, because, it’s just an older society. When Europe was younger it had more crime than it does today. Once the average age creeped up in the late 20th century, it became much safer.

An aging society demands more security. A newfound sense of safety brings with it an increased focus on security. Surveillance becomes more widespread, and policies tighten. The result is a society that, while safer, feels more restrained and less dynamic.

The pursuit of safety and security leads to a quieter, more controlled environment, but it raises questions about what has been lost in the process. i

In the background, crime evolves rather than disappears. While violent incidents decrease, other forms of crime, such as white-collar fraud and cybercrime, become more prevalent. These less visible crimes target the vulnerabilities of an aging society, particularly the elderly.

3) Youth Culture Will Stop Influencing Society

Do you know who Chappel Roan is? Probably not if you’re over 35. But she is very famous…with the youth.

This wasn’t the norm at all for the most of the 20th century. People over 35 knew who Michael Jackson was.

For most of the 20th century, youth culture influenced fashion, art, music, language, style of the rest of the population. It was a one-direction relationship of influence. The youth were seen as "cool," embodying the cutting edge of societal change, innovation, and vitality. That is fading away, slowly.

You don’t see 45 year old modern corporate workers with the zoomer haircut. That’s just for the young people.

In an aging society, the influence of youth culture diminishes significantly. The demographic balance tips, with older populations growing in size relative to the younger ones. As a result, the cultural and economic power that once made youth the arbiters of taste and style begins to wane.

4) The City Becomes a Refuge for the Youth

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