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The Young Need to Change Their Attitude to the Elderly

There is a lot of talk about the percentage of elderly people in the population increasing as time goes on. It seems rational to suggest that they should stay in the workforce. Unless there is legislation to force young Australians out of the "desk" jobs and into manual labor, this will not happen.

As one gets older the body lets you down. You no longer have the stamina to keep going, on a production line for example. Persistent pain that you have to live with is also a problem. Chronic illness can only be treated, not cured. Where do you draw the line between keeping someone at work who is clearly sick or sending them home? When an elderly person says, "I can't do that anymore", maybe they can't.

If you are young good health is taken for granted. You heal quickly and continue to enjoy life. For many, to be old is to be sick. Medical specialists do refuse treatment to the elderly because it is seen as a waste of money, notwithstanding the fact that a new knee or hip would make life less painful.

The whole structure of society will have to change to keep the elderly employed. Young people have the feeling that a "mature" person should work as hard as an employee in their twenties. A significant proportion of the young believe that the assets of the elderly should be taken by the government and spent on them, even though retirees worked hard in their younger days to buy homes.

We will need a Star Trek world where people choose to work not for financial gain but to benefit others. Such a world is too utopian to be believed. It is not the elderly who need to change, it is the young. Respect and consideration of the elderly is not something the young understand.

✴ Technology by Ty Buchanan ✴

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Australian Blog ★ Adventure Australia
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Privatization Is Not the Answer for Government

Australia is going down the same road as the British by privatizing public resources. There is a major problem with this economic theory. That is, that once resource are sold and the money is used to pay off debt it cannot be sold again. When railways, electricity and water are privatized they are no longer under public control. Ordinary people are at the mercy of private enterprise who have been shown to continually increase charges beyond what citizens can bear.

This is the cold reality of what the future will be like. Politicians of the right have put faith in private enterprise for a century or more. The trickle down benefits of wealth are shown to be completely wrong. The riches of nations is still being consolidated into fewer hands. The poorer are poorer still. Despite consumer goods being widespread, very few can afford a Ferrari. Millionaires have been superseded by billionaires. And the these consumers of all things monetary still want more.

When services are outsourced to the private sector there is one significant effect - wages and conditions get worse for lower-paid workers. Casual and part-time employment becomes the norm. The Premier of Queensland is stripping the public sector of "unneeded" departments. This has personally affected me. My son was dismissed after more than ten years of loyal service when his department was closed. Now the state government has to pay enormous costs to private industry to obtain these necessary service and the debt has not been reduced.

Like the nonexistent trickle down effect it is faith not economics. Some things still need to be kept in public hands. Are we going to have toll roads everywhere with road taxes payable to private companies? This will definitely not happen. Water supply is too important to be privatised. It is best handled by councils as local monopolies. The present experiment of having separate bodies manage water will fail in the end. It will go back to councils.

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Politics by Ty Buchanan

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Part-Time and Full-Time Employment Means Fewer Babies

It is not work in general that is causing a decline in women giving birth at a young age. It is specifically temporary jobs that are responsible. In Australia part-time and casual employment has boomed over the last decade as employers see it as a way to keep costs down. Many work extra hours for no money at all, afraid of losing their jobs.

Women working full time can afford to pay for child care, or at least for critical periods when they are working. Such career women are having children before they reach the age of 35 years. There is a myth out there that it is these career women who are starting families at an older age. Oddly the effects of not working full time changes the behavior of women in the high socieconomic group as well. They may be able to afford childcare from a financial "nest egg", but it is the state of mind about not working enough and not having sufficient income for a family.

Financial security in regard to income is essential for women to even consider having children. Careers are not that important to women. This goes against all of the prevailing stereotypes. The number of years spent in part-time work had a strong impact. A year of part-time employment reduced the probability of having a baby by 35 years by 8 per cent. Five years in such work increased the rate to more than a third.

Another myth is that university graduates go straight into full-time employment. Over 60 per cent of these began working in a job with reduced hours. Therefore, high and low-skilled women suffered the same job market problem.

All economies are moving to less-secure employment to reduce production costs. This means that as the decades go by the world population will fall, confounding all predictions. Furthermore, the population in most countries will have a larger proportion of elderly people. Some of these will have to work to survive. Providing old age pensions will become too costly.

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Economics by Ty Buchanan

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Too Many Maths and Science Graduates

For many years it has been said that Australia lacks maths and science graduates. Maths teachers are in short supply we are told. Professor Ian Chubb, a chief scientist, certainly pushes this case.

Unfortunately, data does not support this premise. Like qualified information technology people, maths and science graduates find the job market difficult. It seems there is real demand only in geological science. A little more than half of graduates say their qualifications are relevant to their work. They hold down jobs only in distantly related fields.

One would think that with science and technology moving forward at a rapid pace such qualified people would be sorely needed. Employment in agricultural science is falling because young people are leaving rural towns and refuse to learn about farming. It is seen as glorified laboring.

Getting a post-graduate qualification does not help to find work. Employers see higher degrees as narrowing educational scope. Government is continuing to push universities to offer science and maths teaching despite labor demand falling. Places for teachers are available, but when first employed new teachers have to work for ten years or more in the bush before they can choose where they want to live.

Though historically Australian culture was based on bush life, today the young are urbanites. They love big cities and living near the ocean. The trend is for elderly grandparents to spend their last days in rural areas, while their offspring live it up on the coast. Maths and science, however, may not be the road to financial success.

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Conservation

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Internet Puts Pressure on Jobs for Older Workers

The Internet is putting more people out of work and this is only the beginning. As more advanced algorithms are being developed established jobs are under threat. It will not only be lawyers and professional photographers employed by newspapers who get the chop. Unless you are in work that involves human problem solving like plumbers, mechanics and vehicle body repairers your job will face "extinction".

Most of the burden will fall on older workers. Retail, for example, only wants teenagers who can be paid a pittance while "training". Open discrimination occurs against people over 45. They are simply not wanted. This barrier age has fallen in recent years. Computerized job selection processes cuts them off at the beginning. Their resumes are not even looked at. If they go personally to apply for a position they face insulting comments and bad jokes.

Employers are no longer afraid of telling them directly that they are too old. Many have simply given up on seriously looking for work and they just do the minimum to justify payments from Centrelink.

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Economics

Australian Blog★
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The Aged Are Not Employed

Developed country are heading toward a crisis of not enough people to do the work. Baby boomers have reached retirement age and with such a large section of society no longer contributing there will be fewer taxpayers to fund economies. Government revenues will fall. Workers can only pay so much tax. Beyond a certain level incentive to work decreases.

Despite the problem, employers still persist in seeking young employees when there are plenty of elderly people who can hold down jobs. Old legislation covering those in public service force retirement on perfectly capable workers. Some Australian states are planning to change this.

The private sector has no restrictions. Many doctors, for example, work into their 80s. This is because they are self-employed, so they can decided when to stop. Fewer retirees are offering their service free in voluntary work. This means their lives just slow down and they spend their time doing very little. Their lives would be more interesting if they were given the opportunity to work.

Life expectancy has improved. There is no rational reason to refuse work to those who want it. The retirement age will be raised to 67, but this is ten years away. Governments are now heading into a funding crises. Australian businesses are bringing in skilled workers from overseas to fill vacancies that are really are not there. Government needs to give real incentives to businesses to encourage them to offer employment to mature workers.

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Society

Australian Blog★

Society Ignores the Disabled

With workplace participation by those with disabilities being a prime goal touted by government there is no solid progress. Words are cheap and politicians know it. Funding is just not there. Businesses must make a profit to survive in a competitive world and they will not take the disabled on without subsidies. This is a fact.

Those with disabilities are even shunned by the public at large. They face discrimination every day. They feel that government ignores them as must as businesses. Ninety four per cent of disabled people said this in a recent survey.

Besides having a job, they want support in basic social contact. Many do not have a circle of friends. When they are with a carer, bank staff, for example, talk to the carer without speaking to the person cared for. The disabled are ignored as being "non-people".

Wheelchair access has not been improved for years. Public transport is out of the question for many. Parts of the city are never visited by the disabled. Such areas are impossible for wheelchairs.

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Society