A recent opinion column in the Salvadoran newspaper El Diario de Hoy takes an unusual angle on population aging: the rising demand for adult diapers as a quiet but telling economic indicator of what’s coming. As life expectancy climbs, so does the market for products tied to elder care, and the author sees this as a sign that societies need to start planning for much longer lifespans.
The piece centers on Generation X — those roughly born between the mid-1960s and early 1980s — as the cohort uniquely positioned to reshape what aging looks like. Having lived through the leap from rotary phones to smartphones, and from typing classes to artificial intelligence, this generation is used to constant reinvention. The author argues that this same adaptability will define how Gen X approaches retirement, health, and later life: not as a period of decline to be managed, but as an extended stage of contribution, creativity, and personal growth.
Rather than treating longer lifespans as a looming crisis, the column frames them as an opportunity — one that will require new products, new attitudes, and new economic models built around people who remain active well into old age.
Curious about the full argument? Read the original column at El Diario de Hoy.
Source: El indicador económico más decisivo del futuro… el pañal de adulto (El Diario de Hoy).
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