I've been watching bemusedly - and with no little horror - the arguments waged between elite media types, celebrated authors and lowly bloggers over Stephen Harper's hint about raising the qualification for old age pension from 65 to 67.
It's all academic, literally. What's not being considered in these finely-wrought debates and dissertations is that there is no work for those over 60, let alone 65, 67 (or as one pundit posited, 74). Period. What I'm reading on the subject of Harper's recent pronouncements (which I'm beginning to think are nothing more than sociopathic Republican-style fear-mongering) revolving around the pension are mere exercises in intellectual wankery.
Who cares what history or statistics tell a pundit or elite? Who cares what some young 'expert' on all things thinks when the reality is that it doesn't matter if you're 60, 65 or 74. There's no fucking work out there for elders, seniors, old folks, boomers, whatever derogatory clinical name you want to give us. Hell, there's barely enough work to go around for those in their twenties, let alone the older folks.
Stop, just stop it. If you want to be pedantic and analytical, fine. But bring some reality to your arguments, folks. Listen to some older people looking for work. Hit the pavement with me on an average work search day. This is not about statistics and history. It's about people.
X-posted at Sister Sage's Musings.
6 comments:
Bravo!
The market these days is such that public and private sector employers are getting free services from young, educated workers through bogus "internship" programs. Some are supported by their relatively well-off parents, others have to scrimp and save for this saintly career opportunity.
So if this is the reality for youth, how is anyone daft enough to think that employers are going to hire older workers who have more medical issues to deal with and less energy than their 20-40 year old counterparts.
Walmart has announced that they are getting rid of their "greeters". That pretty much wipes out employment for anyone over 65.
With Harper, insanity reigns. Harper and his Conservatives, will of course, wait for their pensions until they are sixty-seven? Or is that just for the peons?
I suggest, Harper needs a mental evaluation. I have yet to hear, a lick of sense coming from him.
I just finished reading Sister Sage's Musings using the exact same text. Who has written this ...I should think it is the above since Let Freedom Rain's blog is posted after the above. If that is the case, Sister Sage's Musings needs to be mentioned in your blog Let Freedom Rain.
Anyong. Thanks for pointing this out. The post was first published here. CK subsequently picked it up for Sister Sage's Musings. I neglected to include cross post info here because I didn't see the post at SSM. My apologies to CK.
Harpers bold and couragus plan to transport Canada back to the 18th Century
1) Old people can literally feed the polar bears
2) All R and D devoted to buring fossil fuels
3)Immigration streamlined to allow guest workers for the oil patch at minimum wage. (if only we had more coolies)
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