Steve Jurvetson's Trend #1: Demographics are destiny, creating opportunity. Every 11 seconds, a baby boomer turns 60. Rather than regarding the burgeoning ranks of “retirees” as an economic sink of subsidies, I see an enormous market and an untapped opportunity in the aging demographic. By 2025, the American demographic, overall, will look like Florida does today.
There is a wonderful economic asymmetry between those who have money and those who have time, between those who need an answer and those with information. The boomer market creates opportunities in secondary education and retraining, telecommuting technologies for rich communication over the Internet, web services to segment and abstract workflow processes, and technology to help us all retain our mental acuity and neural plasticity as we age.
Lifelong learning is not just about enlightenment; it’s an economic imperative.
