The Stages of Our Lives

When we are born, we are totally reliant on others. We eat a lot and produce nothing. If we were left alone, we would die. We gradually become more and more self-reliant as we age. In theory at least, when we are in our twenties, we begin to make our own way. We can provide for ourselves. What we eat is on par with what we produce. As we age through our thirties, we begin to produce more than we eat, so we provide for others who are producing less than they eat. As we age through our forties, others’ dependence on our ability to produce a lot more than we eat becomes very great and peaks when we reach age fifty, when we are at the height of our producing years.

Between fifty and sixty, our production begins to diminish ...

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