There will be a clump of older workers doing crappy jobs for lower pay because that is where they learned to settle. Their most productive, ambitious and explorative years were spent on a treadmill getting nowhere, burning hope, and dropping expectations. It becomes impossible to believe the ideals which were inculcated throughout their educations. They become detached, determine that kicking against these pricks is not a worthwhile fight, take crappy jobs and adjust their patterns of living. Maybe once they start to hit 35 they settle down, their drive to buy status defining consumer goods abated, and just focus on the things they have come to value. Maybe they've started off their work life detached from the rat race, merely observing, because their momentum was lost so early.

Will 35-40 year olds be the ones competing with 22-25 year olds for entry positions with growth potential? Will employers value the naive but eager 22 year olds and vault them to supervisory positions over the 35-40 year olds whose lives are more complicated and less dedicated to climbing the workplace ladder? Maybe the younger people will give up before even trying, noting the lack of success for the cohort that precedes them.

And let's recognize that 15 year olds now have been saturated with computers and cellphones their entire lives. Since birth. Most of us here had much much less digital attachment during our most formative young years. How is that dynamic going to influence communication and understanding between generations?