(whatever you want) - Essay Example

My Retirement When I retire from work in about 40 years, the world will be a completely different place from what it is now. I am wondering if I will even want to quit working just because the working environment might have changed a lot. By then, we might be working mostly from home in an environment of our own choice and interacting with our ‘office-mates’ through digital video and audio transmission. I might choose to cut down my working hours and work more often from exotic locations, but life might be a lot different and more relaxing.

The demographic situation I envision for myself at retirement age is much different from the situation my parents face. Because life will be less stressful, thanks to reduced traffic and a more pleasurable work environment, people will be much healthier when they reach retirement age than people in my parents’ generation. I will be able to stay active through most of my life, so when I don’t have to work at all anymore, I will still be in good shape to do things like wind surfing and skiing.

Also, health will be improved if the country really turns to more green energy alternatives and the environment gets cleaned up. Less pollution in the air means we will have fewer cases of cancer and lung disease. People will be able to live much longer lives, particularly as medical knowledge and technology continues to be improved. In recent years, doctors have been taking a more holistic approach to medicine and this trend will probably continue so that a lot more will be known about human health by the time I retire.

Since everyone will be living longer, either because they are able to stay healthier through most of their lives, because greater advances are made in medicine or because people won’t be as stressed out all the time, the demographic group will be very large. This may end up putting too much strain on the economy to try to maintain such a large population of retired people. For this reason, people like me who will probably be in better shape and still capable of working, might be expected to work much longer than the traditional retirement age of 65.

This will probably be particularly true in fields like what I plan to go into, where work can be done from remote locations if necessary. Also, if the government decides to depend on nuclear power as a means of replacing fossil fuels, there will be a much greater chance that a dangerous accident might happen and make the atmosphere entirely toxic to people. Between that and the way that small and aggressive countries are developing nuclear power and possibly weapons, there’s even a chance that we won’t be a species anymore by the time I would have reached retirement age.

The way I see things, the demographic situation I’ll be in by the time I retire will be one of two drastically different possibilities. Either it will be a very prosperous time where people can continue working as long as they want and continue to be active even longer thanks to greater health and flexibility or it will be a very lean time where too many old people not working are driving down the economy and making it difficult for anyone to enjoy a comfortable living. A great deal will depend on the direction the government takes toward issues like global warming, alternative energy, health care and the economy crisis.