Few societies have come to grips with the new demography. We cling to the notion of retirement at sixty-five— a reasonable notion when those over sixty-five were a tiny percentage of the population but increasingly untenable as they approach 20 percent. People are putting aside less in savings for old age now than they have at any time since the great Depression. More than than half of the very old now live without a spouse and we have fewer and fewer children than ever before, yet we give virtually no thought to how we will live out our later years along.
Atul Gawande
