RESEARCH Aging baby boomers increase demand for beauty products attributed to aging

NEW YORK (AP) -- Beauty is a $160 billion-a-year global industry, and for some, it's worth the price.
According to a recent issue of The Economist magazine, people who are good-looking have great advantages over those who are not.
The beauties of the world are more confident and are more likely to get married. They also make more money, the magazine reports, citing a study of 11,000 British 33-year-olds that found that they pay penalty for unattractiveness was around 15 percent for men and 11 percent for women. Overweight women earned 5 percent less than average.
Good looks particularly matter in face-to-face work, such as sales jobs.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that the global beauty industry -- consisting of skin care worth $24 billion; makeup, $18 billion; hair care, $38 billion; and perfume, $15 billion -- is growing at up to 7 percent a year.
This growth, x reports, is fueled by aging baby boomers, increased discretionary income in Western nations, and the growing middle classes in developing countries, such as Brazil, which has more Avon Ladies (900,000) than it has troops in its army and navy.