Mobility type tech will likely see a boom in the next few years, is my guess. Same with any other tech that helps/benefits the Boomer generation as they enter retirement/old age.
Tons of business trends and even political trends have followed the boomers life cycles due to the disproportionate chunk of the market they represent. Eg. When boomers were in their late teens/early twenties, it was the 1960s, and it was all psychedelics, free-er sexuality stuff, peace and love. As they got older and started having children, suddenly it shifted to “protect the kids from drugs, lets declare war on our old pass-times!” while also having an undercurrent of cocaine for big business career sorts. As they’ve gotten older, more programs and initiatives have focused increasingly on seniors and senior supports.
Mobility tech like this, is following the same trend.
Not sure how that matters specifically. Boomers are just now approaching 80 – 80 year olds today, are still part of “The Silent Generation” which came before the boomers.
Boomers are 1946-1964, so they’re 62 - 80. They likely won’t start encountering mobility issues until their mid 70s/early 80s if they’ve remained “reasonably” active and healthy. So, I don’t think my comment’s out of line in that sense. The earliest of the boomers are approaching that age / have reached that age – and now we’re seeing more products/solutions brought forward to assist, just in time for the rest of the boomer cohort to buy it / use it.
Further, the wealth disparity between the older generation and the younger is significant, and worth highlighting. My retired parent earns more money than I do per year. Here in Canada, their stocks, retirement investments, and govt pension plans earn them more annual income than I earn from working full time in a relatively decent job in the private sector – well above the national averages in both cases. My parents weren’t particularly wealthy growing up, just regular middle class. I have no particular reason to think my parent’s situation unique, but rather to think it more the norm for that age range, especially as all their peers are in seemingly similar situations (if they’re still alive, admittedly).
The media focuses on stories of old people who are destitute and need help for social services narratives. But remember, Trump’s 80. Bill Gates is 70. A ton of senators, judges, and so on are WELL past the age you’d think they’d retire, and they’re still earning like 100s of thousands/millions of dollars per year. The Kochs in the states are well into their 80s, still throwing hundreds of millions at politicians to control how the country’s run. In Canada, this demographic also contains the ‘snow birds’, a large enough demographic slice to have its own colloquial nickname, they’re the people who have vacation homes in florida that they go to for months out of the year because… they’re so economically strapped! They can only afford their regular home, their vacation home in florida, and a cabin for weekend get-aways! How will they ever afford something like a mobility device! Oh, wait, you’re right, they can drag out the same old narrative to push the cost onto younger generations! They’re too house-poor to afford it, so they’ll get the government/insurance programs to cover the cost!
Being old doesn’t mean you’re poor and hard done by, except when the government wants tax payers to pay more to senior care programs, at which point they churn out the marketing message that all old people need to be protected. Are there old people who are poor and destitute? Yes. But it’d be absurd to type cast them as such.