The following are some stories to which The Leisure Economy has particular relevance and on which Linda Nazareth is available to comment:
- What’s Next for the Boomers: Will the boomers retire? Can they afford to? What will they do with their leisure time when they leave?
- Generation X and Generation Y: Are they really the “Slacker Generations?”. How are their attitudes to work life balance creating the leisure economy? How has their upbringing brought them to this point?
- What’s Next for the Workforce: As boomers retire and Gens X and Y are ascendant in the workforce, how will it change? Will we see more part-time work? Will we see sabbaticals? What should companies do to bring in the workers they want? The Leisure Economy fits into any stories on an aging workforce, or on labor shortages, as well as into any Gen X and Gen Y stories.
- Opting Out: Are Gen X and Y moms (and dads) more likely to leave and take the family time over the income hit? How does this fit with what the monthly employment surveys are telling us?
- The ‘leisure’ industries: Why is education likely to be the biggest growth industry of the future? What about the other leisure industries—from reading through to golf through to gambling through to travel? Which are likely to be the winners?
- The coming boom in the volunteer sector: are North American charities prepared for all the ‘help’ they are going to get? Will they blow their chance at free, skilled, labor?
- The leisure divide: For every baby boomer who is going to retire and enjoy the good life, there is one that is going to retire and slice their own carrots because they are moving into a lower income bracket and can no longer afford the “conveniences “they paid for during their working lives. What kinds of ‘leisure economies’ will there be? Who are the ‘Golden Leisurites?’
- The coming boom in parsimony: more leisure means less income, whether we are talking about retired boomers or family households with a parent is newly “stay at home”. How will that affect consumer spending choices, and the economy in general?
- The Changing Map: Without the pull of the workforce, where will people choose to live? Will the leiusre economy mean more people headed to city condos, or to little hamlets in the country?
- What Exactly is Leisure Time: Is the time crunch here to stay, simply because we don’t know how to relax anymore?
