40 Years to Live

Over at Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen considers the following question: What if we all died at the age of 40? His answers and others are interesting to imagine:

The likelihood of warfare would rise, if only because the sage elderly won’t be around and male hormones will run rampant. Credit would be harder to come by and the rate of home ownership would fall. The rate of voting turnout will go down, as would the degree of wealth inequality and the amount of innovation. Federal discretionary spending, as a percentage of the budget, would rise.

I’m just glad that this is just a thought exercise (though there are certain parts of the world, mostly in Africa, where average life expectancy is under 50 years).

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