Longevity Technocracy, Modern Approaches to Policy, Governance and National Industrial Strategies, and Longevity as the New Political Priority of the 21st Century

The global megatrend of Longevity industrialization has progressed substantially over the past five years, with the mission of extending Healthy Human Longevity. It has grown from a fringe area of science into a major strategic priority, increasingly adopted by large and reputable investors, the conservative scientific community, entrepreneurs and start-ups, financial corporations, and (as this book has demonstrated) even entire governments.

 

In this time span, we have seen major national governments declare their aging populations to be one of their largest strategic challenges and publicly commit to the optimization of National Healthy Longevity (as the UK has done with their goal of adding five extra years of socially inclusive Healthy Longevity to their population by the year 2035). We have seen the rise of municipal Longevity industrial strategies, the formation of dedicated parliamentary groups for Longevity, and the topic of Longevity enter the mainstream political arena. While the boldest and most tangible examples of government adoption of Longevity as a major policy platform priority are few, I am confident that many more are soon to follow.

 

In the last few years, we have also seen some newly defined terms enter into the political vocabularies of global political society for measuring Healthspan – the number of years a person can live free from age-related disease, illness, and dysfunction. Perhaps the two most important of these metrics are “Health-Adjusted Life Expectancy” (HALY) and “Quality-Adjusted Life Years” (QALY). The nations that achieve national HALE and QALY will come to be seen as the first true “Longevity States,” while the regions and municipalities to achieve this – the industry clusters that serve as the engines of this change – will come to be recognized as the first true “Longevity Valleys.” In addition to this, the nations and regions that demonstrate a commitment to creating Longevity Valleys and Longevity States will create a new kind of integrated “health-wealth haven” to which HNWIs and foreign investors will migrate to for the sake of their own Healthspans and Wealthspans.

 

We have even seen the prospect of technologically increased HALY and QALY impacting investor expectations and the lifestyle priorities driving the choices of UHNWIs. In 2018, UBS Investor Watch reported that “more than half of wealthy investors expect to live for 100 years” and that “nine in 10 investors are taking steps in response to increasing life expectancy such as adjusting spending habits and financial plans, and allocating their wealth to long-term investments.” It concluded that “[f]or the world’s wealthy, living a 100-year life is not an outcome they consider a mere possibility. It’s one they expect.” We are beginning to see a rapidly increasing number of UHNWIs embrace the notion of Health as New Wealth and the concept of health and Healthspan as an entirely new asset class.

 

In financial circles, talk of solutions is now as common as talk of the problems posed by demographic aging, and Healthspan extension is now a logical topic of discussion for world-leading healthcare thought-leaders, business analysts, investors, and other industry professionals foreseeing a future where Healthy Longevity becomes an asset. Municipal and national governments have also begun shifting their priorities towards this trend, outlining their plans on how to support Longevity industrialization within their borders. Some are even going so far as to publicly commit to the maintenance and optimization of their citizens’ Healthy Longevity as well.

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This shift in governmental attitudes from an aging-reactive position (reactively trying to neutralize the economic burden of the growing proportion of the population that is aged 60 and older) to a Longevity-proactive position (the support of methods to extend the period of healthy, productive lifespan) could not have come at a better time. 

 

The emergence of government efforts not just to avoid the challenges of aging but support and develop the massive socioeconomic opportunities of Longevity (extending the period of workforce participation and productivity, lowering the healthcare burden of old-age care, and reaping economic growth as a result of Longevity industrialization) has been similarly timely. 

 

Governments now have all the required technologies and tools available to improve the health of their citizens. Therefore, any failure to do so is entirely the result of a lack of will and responsibility, not a lack of technology or resources. For this reason, only those governments willing to embrace the integral use of modern technologies and deep AI-driven comparative analytics to optimize their political and industrial Longevity strategies will be likely to succeed. 

 

As developments in this arena continue, we can expect that the maintenance, optimization, and extension of citizens’ healthy lifespan will come to be seen as a fundamental right of citizens and the duty of governments to guarantee it. It can be expected that, by the year 2030, the electorates of most developed nations will demand that their governments fulfill this duty.

 

The political, economic, and industrial capital that municipal and national governments control and dispense is larger than that of any other industry stakeholder. Not only that, but the stakes are proportionately higher since governments are tasked with maintaining and optimizing the wellbeing and quality of life of their entire population and the size, integrity, and stability of their entire national economy. 

 

The extent to which governments work to proactively support and develop the emerging national asset class of Healthy Longevity will determine which nations thrive in the face of the “Silver Tsunami,” the wave of global population aging sweeping from east to west. It will also determine which countries succeed in not only avoiding massive economic shortfalls as a result of population aging but in leveraging the global megatrend of Longevity industrialization to create new sources of economic growth and stability for the benefit of their own citizens and economies.

 

In 2021, this upward trajectory of global Longevity Industry development has now reached a point where politicians and governments have become major actors and drivers of growth in the Longevity Industry. Within the next few years, they will begin to serve not just a complementary and accelerative role in the further development of the Global Longevity Industry, but a systemic, fundamental, and essential one. 

 

As we near the end of 2023 and face the beginning of 2024, it is clear that the age of Longevity Politics has already begun.