Rethinking Age And Aging, By Warren Sanderson And Sergei...

In Rethinking Age and Aging, by Warren Sanderson and Sergei Scherbov, the concept of life-expectancy changing the meaning of age is explored in great detail. As quality of life and life expectancy improve, the ability of people to maintain certain lifestyles for longer grows. This ability is changing how society manages questions of age, with regards to social policy and age-specific benefits. â€Å"40 is the new 30† is a phrase that highlights changing perceptions of age and what certain ages mean. Forty is the â€Å"chronological age†, the number of years that a person has lived. In the past, this has been a reliable indicator of familial-status (for example: a person will normally have had several children by 35), retirement age (a person has exhausted their use in the workforce by 65), and death (people will die by 70). Now, as life-expectancy grows and access to enhanced medical care creates a better quality of life for people as they age, a new type of age has be en put forth for consideration by Sanderson and Scherbov. â€Å"Prospective age† is aged based on how many years of life a person can except to have left. Someone 70 years ago aged 30 might expect to have 40 more years of life, while someone aged 30 today might expect to have 50 more years of life. As Sanderson and Scherbov, say â€Å"Prospective age is important because it affects how people live their lives and plan for the future†(Sanderson, Scherbov p. 6). Because prospective age is a useful indicator of how people live and