Ageing is a far bigger market issue than just Biden

AGEING and mortality apply to all of us. That is among many reasons why the crisis around Joe Biden, who has now made the painful decision not to run for the presidency, has gripped the world. The difficulty that we all have in coping with those issues, or even addressing them, is central to the dreadful mess that has become the US election.

We’ve gotten very good at dealing with the risk of dying too young. Even in the world’s poorest countries, life expectancy is surging. Medicine has improved, as has sanitation, and public health initiatives have curbed smoking. Life insurance can cheaply and easily cover the financial risks of an untimely end.

Biden’s abdication rams home, however, that we’re no good at dealing with the risks created by greater longevity. We don’t have the institutions, medical techniques, financial products or – it now appears – political structures to deal with the problems that can come with longer lives. The evolution has been slow and imperfect. Companies that started out to provide life insurance, for example, have tried to adapt to offering pensions instead.