The new longevity: we need to change our perspective

By 2030, one in four Spaniards will be over 60 years old. And yet, we continue to organize society as if aging were a rarity or an anomaly. We are facing a structural demographic shift of similar magnitude to the digital revolution or the climate transition. But we are not prepared. The longevity economy is not a category of the future: it is already a present that exceeds the conventional frameworks of public policies, business strategies, and educational systems.

This transformation has many faces. One of the most visible is the sustained increase in life expectancy, which has doubled in just one generation. But it's not enough to live longer; what counts is how we live them. And to ensure that these added years don't become a passive extension, we need to rethink everything we understand by education, work, retirement, caregiving, or purpose in life. This isn't just a healthcare or budgetary challenge : it's a major cultural and productive challenge.

Gerontologist Javier Yanguas has expressed it clearly: we are facing a change as profound as climate change, but with much less public debate. Longevity is not just a matter of health or pensions. It affects how we design cities, technologies, jobs, and social ties. And, above all, it demands a radical redesign of life trajectories. The model that clearly separated education, employment, and retirement no longer works. We are moving toward longer, more discontinuous, and more diverse biographies, where it will be necessary to learn, relearn, and relocate several times throughout life.

This has decisive implications for companies. They cannot afford to lose senior talent or ignore their development needs. Accumulated experience cannot become a burden, but rather a competitive advantage. To achieve this, myths and prejudices must be debunked : older adults can innovate, adapt, and take action. But they need real opportunities for development and participation. They need training paths that are not a carbon copy of youth models, but rather respond to their motivations, times, and life contexts.

From the training perspective, the challenge is immense. It's not enough to extend courses for seniors or open flexible enrollment. We're talking about building a truly lifelong education system, with new methodologies, recognition of prior knowledge, personalized counseling, and guidance more linked to projects than to stages. Universities, businesses, and social stakeholders must think together about how to facilitate these transitions, how to train for meaningful senior employability, and how to generate new ecosystems that blend generations and talents.

We also need to redesign work itself. Not everyone will be able or willing to remain in a standard job until age 70, but that doesn't mean they should be excluded from the productive system. We will need to expand the ways to contribute: mentoring, project-based work, senior cooperatives, hybrid approaches to employment and volunteering, and so on. Active aging cannot be a slogan: it must be supported by structures, incentives, and cultures that make it possible.

In Nobody's Fool, a magnificent and twilit Paul Newman plays a person who, after a somewhat erratic existence, begins to reconcile with his son, his community, and his own history. Without moralizing or drama, the film shows that it's never too late to rebuild bonds and find purpose.

That, ultimately, is the great promise of a long-lived society: to enable new opportunities even when the calendar seems against us. To achieve this, we need to change the way society views things, but also enable real structures for participation and learning, and, above all, change our own perspective—that of those of us who are approaching this vital moment.

We are facing one of the great transformations of the 21st century. We can approach it from a place of nostalgia, trying to maintain outdated models, or from a place of opportunity, reimagining what it means to live, work, and learn in longer-lived societies. If we do this right, we will not only avoid collapses but also gain in cohesion, productivity, and well-being.

There are no one-size-fits-all recipes. But one thing is certain: the longevity economy cannot wait. Nor can it be built without the key players themselves. Senior inclusion is, ultimately, the most mature form of progress.