We live in interesting times
and whilst I may be old/aged/mature and a touch grumpy there is a problem when it comes to our children reaching their middle age and cannot find a job because they are ‘too old’.
It is called Age Discrimination.
You’ve may well have come across this before when someone defines your abilities by your age, or assumes you can’t contribute because you’re too young or that you wouldn’t understand because you’re too old. That’s age discrimination, and it’s getting worse.
Age discrimination can happen to us all, but it hits older citizen the hardest.
Now you may wonder why I should pontificate on this subject and it is because we as Seniors are living, working and staying active for longer. It can hold us back at a time when for example we should be enjoying the use of computing devices of any and all kinds if we did not already used them in our employment before retirement.
For those of us who are mature it is becoming more and more vital for business as employers, employees, producers and consumers. Age discrimination forgets that Seniors – that is anyone over 50 – are the engine rooms of our communities, volunteering more hours than anyone else in the country, and that their experience, wisdom and generosity provides positive role models for us all.
Here is a little video made in Australia by the Australian Human Rights Commission that my older son sent me, and it puts it quite succinctly.
We are all getting older, wouldn’t it be nice if we could help to stop age discrimination before it stops us. Maybe you too can help to put the positivity back into ageing.
Live well.
Kapiti SeniorNet 
The post by scangen and the points raised have particular resonance for Kapiti as the area with the highest Senior population percentage in the country. The importance of this group is disregarded so often but is highlighted by the 2015 report by the Minister of Senior citizens, Maggie Barry, ‘Business of Ageing’, in which it is stated that the older population is a force for positive change and should be recognized as such.
The report finds that in future years:
• more older people will participate in the workforce
• the economic value of older people’s paid and unpaid work will increase with their earnings growing, from $2.8 billion in 2011 to $18.2 billion in 2051
• Unpaid and voluntary work will grow from about $8.5 billon per year in 2011 to an estimated $35 billon in 2051
• older people’s contribution to tax revenue will increase to a total of $2.5 billion in 2051, up from $0.4 billion in 2011
• the mature consumer market will become more important, with spending of about $65 billon in 2051– a rise from about $16 billon per year currently
Note also that Older people are growing as a consumer group. Total amount of spending: 2011: $14b, 2051: $65b.
Older people are growing as a workforce. In paid employment in 2011: 19% of people 65+ [approx.111000], 2051: 29% [approx. 408000].
Older people are growing as a volunteer group. 2011: $8.8b, 2051: $35b.
Older people are making a growing contribution as taxpayers. 2011: Total amount of tax paid $3.6b, 2051: $17b.
So it is time that business understood the key role older people will play now and in the future.
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