Is 30 The New 50?

I name-checked David Wolfe recently because I've always thought his development psychology approach resonates with many of today's hot issues such as socially-responsible business (unsurprisingly the subject of his upcoming book). While I knew about the classic econometric impacts of the aging population many years ago, it's less than half the story.

The idea that self-actualisation is the predominant worldview characteristic is completely apparent as soon as you have it pointed out to you. It fires the passions of your friends, it fires religion and it must be what's firing the dumb pursuits of those weirdoes with whom you have no intention of interacting.

David Wolfe argues that, due to inevitable neural development, it comes to prominence in the fall season of your life which equates to 38 and over. But, I'm beginning to wonder if it's also a social contagion that might increasingly be affecting younger people who, as GDP per capita grows and living on credit mushrooms, are acquiring material possessions at an earlier age.

They move into new homes that are fully decorated, they fill them with appliances, and they snort at their parents' exhortations to live within their means and save for a rainy day. They also realise earlier that this doesn't bring them happiness and turn to catching dreams, knitting yogurt and regressing in various ways. How do I know this? Well I don't, but what I do know is that not all those aforementioned weirdoes are over 38.

More seriously, I think this trend suggests that marketing aimed at the population bulge has a far more significant chance of also chiming with younger demographics, whereas we know the ubiquitous youth marketing obsession distinctly turns off the older consumer. If correct, that might finally persuade more marketers to change their voice.