For generations, ageing was associated with restraint. People slowed down, spent less, drank less, took fewer risks and gradually ceded social and economic space to younger generations. That understanding is being overturned. Across much of the developed world, the first generation to come of age amid post-war prosperity and cultural upheaval is refusing to retire from the lifestyles it embraced in youth. The consequences extend well beyond changing social habits.

They are reshaping economies, politics and the relationship between generations. Longer life expectancy, better healthcare and rising wealth have transformed retirement from a brief closing chapter into a life stage that can last three decades. Millions in their late fifties, sixties and seventies are healthier and more active than their parents were at the same age. Many continue to travel extensively, pursue new relationships, work part-time, consume entertainment and maintain lifestyles once associated with middle age rather than old age. There is little inherently wrong with this.

Longer, healthier lives should naturally expand personal freedom. The problem begins when private choices intersect with public policy. Most advanced economies built their pension........

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