Economics is sometimes known as “the dismal science” – thanks to the 19th century writer and historian Thomas Carlyle. I’m not sure that either word in that phrase is generally fair or accurate, but sometimes economists don’t help themselves.
A good example is around “the ageing population”, something that economists have been worrying about for at least as long as I can remember. In fact, of course, the ageing population is one of the very greatest achievements of mankind in the last couple of hundred years. In the UK – at the leading edge of the Industrial Revolution – average life expectancy at birth in 1840 was just over 40. Now it is over 80. In the first half of the 20th century, many of the gains were in reductions in infant and childhood mortality. In recent decades, the gains have been concentrated among adults. The typical adult is living longer…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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