2014年经济学人 人口统计学 时髦与蹒跚齐行

（单词翻译）

Demography¹

Hip² and hobbling

Not all towns are desperate to attract young people

Nationally, an ageing population is a problem. But locally it can be a boon³. The over-50s control 80% of Britain's wealth, and like to spend it on houses and high-street shopping. The young “generation rent”, by contrast, is poor, distractible and liable to shop online.

People aged⁴ between 50 and 74 spend twice as much as the under-30s on cinema tickets. Between 2000 and 2010 restaurant spending by those aged 65-74 increased by 33%, while the under-30s spent 18% less. The pension pots liberated⁵ by George Osborne's budget earlier this year will likely pour into property. And while the young still struggle to find work, older people are retiring later. During the financial crisis full-time⁶ employment fell for every age group but the over-65s, and there has been a rash of older entrepreneurs. Pensioners⁷ also support the working population by volunteering: some 100 retirees in Christchurch help out as business mentors⁸.

Even if they wanted to, most small towns and cities could not capture the cool kids. Mobile young professionals cluster, and greatly prefer to cluster in London. Even supposed meccas like Manchester are ageing: clubs in that city are becoming members-only, and there are an increasing number of places, as one resident puts it, that “a 19-year-old wouldn't be seen dead in”. Towns that aim too young, like Bracknell and Chippenham, can find their high streets full of closed La Senzas (a lingerie chain) and struggling tattoo⁹ parlours. Outside Britain's capital, high concentrations of youth are commonly tied to high unemployment rates.

Companies often lag behind local authorities in working this out. They are London-obsessed, and have been slow to appreciate the growing economic heft of the old—who are assumed, often wrongly, to stick with products they learned to love in their youth. But Caroyln Freeman of Revelation Marketing¹⁰ reckons Britain could be on the verge¹¹ of a marketing surge directed at the grey pound, “similar to what we saw with the pink”. The window will not remain open forever: soon the baby boomers will start to ail¹², and no one else alive today is likely to have such a rich retirement¹³.

Meanwhile, with the over-50s holding the purse strings¹⁴, the towns that draw them are likely to grow more and more pleasant. The lord mayor of Manchester, Sue Cooley, notes that decent restaurants and nice shops spring up in the favoured haunts of the old, just as they do in the trendy, revamped boroughs¹⁵ of London. Latimer House, a Christchurch furniture store full of retro clothing and 1940s music, would not look out of place in Hackney. Improved high streets then entice¹⁶ customers of all ages.

Indeed, gentrification and gerontification can look remarkably¹⁷ similar. Old folk and young hipsters are similarly fond of vinyl and typewriters, and wander about in outsized spectacles. Some people never lose their edge.