I recently attended a presentation by Steve Worley of Texas Life, who told us beginning this year, there will be more than 10,000 baby boomers reaching age 65 every day until the year 2030. As one of the eldest members of this group, reaching that milestone this month, I started to imagine what the world of benefits will be like in 35 years, in 2046, when some of us begin hitting 100. Our 30-year-old children will then, in fact, be reaching 65. Of course these are all my own guesses, but there is one certainty: The real future will be much stranger, and a lot more complicated.
So what will life be like in 2046?
For one, many more people will work and live in the same building. Employers are already shedding bricks and mortar and by 2046 most information-based workers will work flexible hours, in the location of their choosing. Employers will have measures of productivity that will allow management to evaluate workers. Managers and their team will hold video meetings on a regular basis, employee meetings in person will be rare and will be mostly social events. Production and warehousing workers will live in communities centered near their work location, permitting efficient commuting.
Computers will not only be wireless, they will be part of us, reading our thoughts as we think them. They will tell us when someone wants to talk with us in person (as opposed to simply sending us a message we can handle at leisure). They will alert us when we need to work, or to be somewhere in person rather than via avatar. We will “attend” seminars and webinars via avatars, holographic representations similar to the projection of Princess Leia in the first Star Wars movie (aka Episode 4, A New Hope). Business travel will be much rarer than it is today, both for expense control and risk control due to a combination of terrorist activity and government regulation.
Whenever we feel the urge to shop we will probably purchase whatever we need—food, clothing and retail goods of any kind from America's largest corporation, WALZON-X, the result of a merger of Wal-Mart, Amazon and Fed-Ex about ten years from now. “Whatever we want, wherever we want it, tomorrow morning” is their motto. Everything will be paid for out of an account blending some aspects of today's checking accounts and credit cards. Our onboard computers will keep track of our finances and will manage our payments to all vendors.
We will be both healthier and older as a society than we are today. The trend toward living healthier lifestyles plus medical breakthroughs involving gene-based therapies and breakthroughs in nanotechnology have rendered most cancer and heart problems obsolete, and life expectancy well past the century mark has become common. This will have an effect on career planning, as most people will plan to have at least two very different careers as their good health leads them to expect to work for 60 to 70 years before retiring.
As for benefits, the trend toward personalization of benefit programs will continue, with employers seeing themselves as conduits for benefits that satisfy diverse groups of employees. Disability benefits will be available through age 85. Life insurance will be less expensive than today, as will critical illness coverage. Retirement planning will be more focused on not outliving assets, and as noted above most workers will delay retirement into their 80s. Medical benefits will continue to be a big item, with employers sponsoring genetic analysis and pro-active therapy for virtually all workers. Participation in most benefits will be voluntary, with payments automatically arranged through our personal accounts.
What will our role be? It seems likely employers will continue to seek the advice of specialists in benefit plan design, communications and management. As much as we can expect changes in the workplace environment, the fundamental value of benefits as a differentiating item for employers will continue to be a vital factor in their planning. So we'll need to be around for at least another 35 years.
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