Elderly workers are closer to joining the 'New Poor' than most.

It's partly because of the technological skills as mentioned in the article as well as looking for long term employment as well as health care costs. Older people are more expensive to put on new insurance.

I'm not saying it's right to discriminate against them but it is something they do consider.

icerose said:

It's partly because of the technological skills as mentioned in the article as well as looking for long term employment as well as health care costs. Older people are more expensive to put on new insurance.

I'm not saying it's right to discriminate against them but it is something they do consider.

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Crap, frankly. Age discrimination has been alive and well in the U.S. ever since it was outlawed. Companies find euphemistic means of getting around it, and anybody who has worked for a big corporation goddamn well knows this. You get to fifty, you're on the short list for RIF ("reduction in force"), and that's the way it is. Management can always justify this in some manner. I took a voluntary separation package from BP at the age of 48, recognizing that it was time, and the involuntary package that would come in a year or so wouldn't be nearly as good. Plus, they were threatening explicitly to transfer me across the country to a place where they could jettison me with no difficulty. I had a lot of seniority; I cost too much. Didn't matter than I had the experience that made me better at my technical job than anybody else they could get for less money.

Then I set up a consulting business, and BP hired me back and paid me 50% more money than my previous salary, because nobody else could give them the services they needed. I was out of work a week (nice vacation), and put back to work in the same goddamn Dilbert cubicle I had dwelt in before. And didn't need to attend idiotic staff meetings or fill out idiotic evaluation forms, etc., etc., etc. But consulting fees came out of a different budget than employee salaries, and I didn't show up on employment rolls. This all made complete sense to the accountants who ran the show.

I took the money with no angst.

This kind of shit happens all the time, in every major industry.

You'll get no arguments from me, blacbird. I never said it was right.

The days of Logan's Run are near. (JK)

My uncle at age 55 lost his job and he can't get anything else, so he says he's "retired."

It's a case of the monkey pissing into the cash register. It all runs into money.

Older workers are expensive. As icerose pointed out their health insurance premiums are higher. They are also more experienced and experience can charge more.

Also younger workers, lacking experience, are less likely to tell management that management's latest scheme is idiotic.

If more and more elderly lose their jobs like this, the already strained social services are going to take a monster hit. We might see them collapse long before predicted. It's always bad when people can't be self sufficent so I hope things turn around soon because this only serves to hurt everyone.

I have a relatively distant relative who made no bones about the fact that he'd not hire a disabled person because he could hire folks who'd never miss a day, 'never' raise any premiums, and be very unlikely (he thought) to have life get in the way of work. He was a big manager, so it really pissed me off. He had similar views for women with kids, or even likely to get pregnant.

Yeah, now he's having a hell of a time getting hired at his age. Sucks to be him.

For the good folks who have to go through this, of course I empathize.

Since I am self employed, I don't have this to worry about. However, I resent people in their fifties being referred to as "elderly". I'm almost 61, and I am NOT elderly.

MM