a whole generation of older people in the western countries spend their golden years struggling financially.

You remind me of an interaction I had years ago with an older lady working at CVS. I jokingly said something like "I plan to live forever" and her response was borderline disgust.

My mom has also expressed multiple times that she wouldn't want to live for a very long time. The drudgery of life is much more visible on the ones who've experienced it longest.

However, I think dying is a mainstay of evolution. If you have thousand year old vampires running around sucking down all the resources that could get bad pretty fast.

When you're young your brain acclimates to your environment and you're stuck in the same loops for the rest of your life. Already people live long enough to feel like they don't belong. I've even taught a course one time to teach older people to use Facebook and their iPhones. With technology advancing exponentially it's only going to get worse.