Are you over 50? Has your age reached the 60 years milestone? If you fall in to the 50-plus or 60-plus demographics...are you healthy? Do you have physical or mental impairments that would restrict you from doing your job? No, you say. But suppose your body has one or two..."rough edges"...does that mean you can't fulfill the responsibilities of the position you've been employed to do? No...no...no.
Many businesses in the United States today unjustifiably treat senior citizens as if we were disposable razors. Just because older Americans...are just that... older...that should not be a determining factor for someone younger...to "put us out to pasture." We are people...not horses.
I can only imagine what the owners...boards of directors...and/or upper management of companies throughout our country...are wondering...when they examine our 2016 Presidential candidates. Let's face it...after nearly two-dozen possibilities - in the combined Democratic and Republican parties - four of the five candidates still standing...are beyond the age of 60. Truth to tell, come Inauguration Day on January 20th, 2017, one of the current candidates will be almost 70...one will, in fact, be 70...and one, 75. It is, therefore, obvious that Americans recognize maturity...life experiences...and an extensive resume history.
If people throughout the United States are behind such "oldies, but goodies" - well, maybe "oldies"...I will leave it up to you to decide which one is your "goodie" - then why are seniors losing their jobs?
64 in May. Hillary Clinton...celebrates birthday number 69 in October. Donald Trump...hits 70 in June. And Bernie Sanders... reaches 75 come September. Yet these three men and one woman are seeking the highest office in the land...and we - the people of the United States - are interviewing them. Why then are companies terminating employees because the employers...think the workers...are too old? Or...is it just age?
Are business entities dismissing staffers who break the barrier of half a century...because younger people can be hired for a lot less money? Yes...that is true. But is it fair for a man...or a woman...who has devoted...and invested...many years of their life to a company...or to an industry...to be chewed up and spit out...because the boss can now get someone without gray hair...for half the salary? No...it is definitely not fair. Moreover...it is despicably and deplorably wrong.It's been roughly the last thirty years...that corporate brass nationwide wrongly came to the conclusion...that the "AARP" group of Americans...are too old...and too expensive...to remain on the payroll. But since our nation's economic recession - beginning in 2007 - the laying off...and firing...of older folks...have gotten worse.
With 80 percent of the 2016 Presidential candidates being eligible for Social Security - only Ted Cruz doesn't fit the bill...at age 45 - it is clearly evident that an overwhelming amount of Americans believe senior citizens still have a great deal to offer. My personal feelings...and my endorsement of Hillary Clinton aside...the odds are pretty good...that an individual who is over the age of 60...will likely be elected the 45th President of the United States on November 8th. That being said...middle-aged people - as young as 40 to 50 - but mostly older middle-aged and the..."grandparent brigade"...are having a terribly tough time...keeping their jobs...and - if given the pink slip - securing new ones, so they can support themselves and their families.
An older person's vocational story shouldn't say, "The End"...until he or she decides that it's time to stop working. There are many more chapters in the lives of Americans who are 50, 60, 70...and yes...even 80 and 90 years old.
For quite some time...I've noticed ads for employment opportunities - in newspapers and on the Internet - which are seeking people who have "an abundance of energy"...and..."contemporary creative ideas." These are euphemisms for..."We want applicants who are young." Of course, legally, a company cannot blatantly say that. And although many of us who are over the age of 50 may not have as much energy as a person who is 25 or 30...but - believe it or not - a good amount of seniors today are in better shape now than they were earlier in their lives. Furthermore...those of us who are in our "golden years" can be...and are...quite creative.
So why do businesses today focus so much on the "youth" of America? I am all for giving a good break to a bright, young, up and coming go-getter. But not when it causes the loss of a job to somebody older. That is discrimination.
Decades of knowledge, ability and skillful training are being overlooked...and metaphorically thrown down the drain as if we were leftover foods being crushed into tiny pieces and disintegrated in a garbage disposal.
For several years, I have been buying my food and other household items at a very popular retail store...where customers use shopping carts to transport their purchases. I'm sure you've observed...at your own local grocery store...young people - some in high school or college...and perhaps others in their twenties and thirties - collecting the carts and pushing them from the parking lot to inside the supermarket...so other shoppers can use them. Well...at this particular store where I shop...there are two elderly gentlemen who wear the title of "cart pushers." Each one of these men is over the age of 80.
In the dead of winter...in bitter cold temperatures...with snow barreling down upon them...these two incredible individuals...are outside...pushing these metal monstrosities. And when April showers are bringing May flowers...this pair of remarkable human beings...are gathering hundreds of these..."big baskets"...as the rain pours down...soaking them from head to toe. And...in "the dog days of summer"...when it is so hot that you could fry bacon and eggs on the hoods of cars...these octogenarians are corralling carts like cowboys rounding up horses on the range.
I once asked these hardworking, geriatric giants...how they are able to perform their jobs. After all...I've witnessed 20-year-olds having trouble doing the same tasks. Each one informed me that they lost their career positions a long, long time ago and nobody would hire them, but a supermarket...and only to push carts. They do this job...because they have to...because they have no other choice if they want to eat and keep roofs over the heads of their wives and themselves.
These are not men who had pensions, IRAs or hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings. They live like most Americans...check to check...and had a minimal amount of money put away...but certainly not enough to survive on if they had lived in to their eighties or older...which is what they are now. And of course, it's virtually impossible to live only on Social Security.
But these two "supermarket supermen" were told at a much, much younger age that they were too old to continue working. They're now pushing carts for a living. How the hell were they too old...twenty-five or thirty years ago? The fact of the matter is...a different excuse was used...that the business was "downsizing." However... not too long after each one was laid off from his respective job at two different companies...management hired others - who were considerably younger - to accomplish the same responsibilities...at salaries that were much less. Granted... these are only two people in a country of 323-million. But statistics prove...that numerous men and women...who are as young as 40...are losing their jobs...and can't get new ones. But if they are fortunate enough to be employed elsewhere... the likelihood is...their paychecks are much smaller than they were earning previously.
So if you're a corporate executive...or a company manager who has the power to hire and fire...and you're voting this year for Hillary Clinton...John Kasich...Bernie Sanders...or Donald Trump...for President of the United States...then please think twice before you terminate a loyal employee...just because he or she is getting older. You never know when somebody may turn the tables on you.
And that's The Controversy for today.
I'm Gary B. Duglin.
"We'll talk again."
The Controversy is a publication of GBD Productions. Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Controversy is Gary B. Duglin.
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Photo credits: post-gazette.com and mrctv.org (Governor John Kasich), Reuters and dailymail.co.uk (former Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton), conservativetribune.com (Mr. Donald Trump), college.usatoday.com (Senator Bernie Sanders) and nbclatino.com (Senator Ted Cruz)
Copyright 2016 Gary B. Duglin and TheControversy.net. All Rights Reserved.
Welcome to what passes for Capitalism in the 21st century, Gary...
ReplyDeleteWhat you witnessed in the parking lot of your favorite retail establishment, my friend, was no less than a broken capitalist system at work. Capitalism only works when everyone plays his or her part. This means continually feeding the system with cash; the entrepreneur providing the startup cash and the consumers providing the ongoing cash. In the middle, the employees produce the widgets, get paid for their work and then spend their earnings on other widgets, which fuels the system systemically to keep the capitalist fires burning. The entrepreneur sees a return on his or her initial investment and continues to invest in new ideas and the entire system continues to roll. In a manufacturing world, capitalism works like a charm because there is plenty of work to be done and plenty of workers to do it. However, when laws are passed that make it more profitable to move manufacturing overseas, a systemic paradigm shift needs to occur to re-level the new playing field to account for the workers being displaced. And when the people running the large companies that keep capitalism fueled decide that profits take precedence to everything else, the system breaks down.
American corporations hold the reins to the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness in our country today. They control the pocketbooks and livelihoods of American workers. The same rules that allow them to earn obscene profits for C-level management year over year permit them to squeeze workers until their wages barely cover their costs of living. Gone are the perks of working for a large company: subsidized insurance plans, private pension or 401k plans, cost of living increases, even 40-hour weeks in some cases. Because a corporation is beholden to no one but its shareholders, it can hire and fire at whim in most states and require its workers to adhere to whatever internal policies, procedures and rules they set down.
Until we, as consumers and voters, decide to take back the management of our country and level the playing field so that our greatest assets – our people – are no longer extorted, corporations will continue to rule our lives.