We are already in a happy (?) present without "lifers," if we're being objective. There's nothing left to build here; we've all successfully built everything ourselves, with our own hands, and even more so thanks to sitting on our backsides.
Added after 53 seconds
And in general, life isn't divided into black and white, and besides "lifers" and "non-lifers," there are many different shades of "lifer-ness."

