Shock of Gray : The Aging of the World's Population and How it Pits Young Against Old, Child Against Parent, Worker Against Boss, Company Against Rival, and Nation Against Nation

by Fishman, Ted

• ISBN13: 9781416551027
• ISBN10: 1416551026
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-10-19
• Publisher: Scribner

Summary

TheNewYorkTimesbestselling author ofChina,Inc.reports onthe astounding economic and political ramifications of an aging world.The world's population is rapidly agingby the year 2030, one billion people will be sixty-five or older. As the ratio of the old to the young grows ever larger, global aging has gone critical: For the first time in history, the number of people over age fifty will be greater than those under age seventeen. Few of us undershy;stand the resulting massive effects on economies, jobs, and families.Everyoneis touched by this issueparents and children, rich and poor, retirees and workersand now veteran jourshy;nalist Ted C. Fishman masterfully and movingly explains how our world is being altered in ways no one ever expected.What happens when too few young people must support older people? How do shrinking families cope with aging loved ones?What happens when countries need millions of young workers but lack them? How do compashy;nies compete for young workers? Why, exactly, do they shed old workers?How are entire industries being both created and destroyed by demographic change? How do communities and countries remake themselves for ever-growing populations of older citizens? Who will suffer? Who will benefit?With vivid and witty reporting from American cities and around the world, and through compelling interviews with families, employers, workers, economists, gerontologists, government officials, health-care professionals, corporate executives, and small business owners, Fishman reveals the astonishing and interconnected effects of global aging, and why nations, cultures, and crucial human relationships are changing in this timely, brilliant, and important read.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Gray New World	p. 1
Greetings from Florida, God's Waiting Room	p. 19
A Brief History of Living Much Longer	p. 64
Señor Moment: Spain's Discovery of Age	p. 78
How We (Really) Do (Continuously) Age	p. 120
Japan, Land of the Missing Son	p. 144
Cheating Death, One Molecule at a Time	p. 188
The Twisting Fates of the Screw Capital: Rockford, Illinois	p. 209
Vulnerable, Cherished, Frail, Kind, Bothersome, Sweet, Expensive, Wise, Lonely, and Irrelevant: How Do We See the Elderly?	p. 270
China: Will It Grow Old Before It Grows Rich?	p. 294
Generations at the Table	p. 340
Acknowledgments	p. 361
Notes	p. 369
Index	p. 387
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